Extended Producer Responsibility is a strategy to reduce the environmental impact of products throughout their life cycle. The aim of EPR is to make producers responsible for the disposal and recycling of products after they have reached their useful life. The idea is that producers have an incentive to make products more environmentally friendly and recyclable because they are responsible for the disposal of the products and therefore have to bear the disposal costs.

– Registration with the relevant national authorities. Only then can you import the product into the country.

– Payment of disposal fees depending on the quantity exported to the country. A quantity report is required beforehand.

– Labelling and information requirements on packaging to inform end consumers on how to maximise recovery and minimise environmental damage.

Since there is no central authority in the EU, EPR registration must be done separately in each area and for each Member State. There are currently 27 EPR systems, each with its own individual registration, settlement and reporting system. If you are a direct sender without a branch in the destination country, you usually need a local representative who is responsible for you, who manages the contracts with the collection systems and who communicates with the authorities in the appropriate national language.

The specific obligations in Germany – depending on the product – include registration with the EAR foundation (register for waste electrical equipment) and registration in the LUCID packaging register and participation in the dual system.

If you place goods on the EU market, you should review your EPR obligations. You are required to register if:

– you manufacture products,

– you import products,

– you are an (online) retailer and sell products.

A prerequisite for these obligations is that the country in question does not exclude you from participating in registration. Such an exclusion is only possible in a few cases, e.g. in Italy, in the packaging industry, where for financial reasons a branch office is needed to meet the legal requirements to participate in the collection of packaging. Similar exceptions apply to entities placing batteries on the market. However, these should be excluded completely in the future.

There are no exceptions when it comes to electrical appliances. In principle, you have such an obligation in every country to which you distribute.

In the area of ​​packaging materials, there are also “minor restrictions” in several countries. These stipulate that registration becomes a requirement only after reaching a certain sales volume or turnover in € per year. These quantities vary from country to country and in a few cases the de minimis limit does not exempt you from registration, but only from paying disposal fees calculated based on quantity.

A distributor is any legal or natural person who makes products available on the market for the first time with the intention of distributing them to consumers. Consumers in this case are both professional end customers and private consumers. “Delivery” includes any delivery of a product, whether for a fee or free of charge, for the purpose of distribution, consumption or use in the context of a business activity. This also includes offering the product (in an online shop or otherwise).

In other words: if you want to advertise a product at all, you must already be registered. Until you have successfully registered, there is a legal ban on sales. If you do not want to advertise your products in a certain country, you are legally prohibited from operating an online shop or offer in the respective national language or you must expressly exclude the shipment of products to the respective country.

Yes. Penalties are set by law in each country and may vary depending on the infringement. Penalties apply:

– if you are not registered,

– if you do not submit reports correctly, in full or on time,

– if you do not pay waste collection fees or do not pay them in full or on time,

– or even if you violate labeling and information obligations.

Penalties are imposed depending on the seriousness of the infringement and the extent of the damage. As a rule, fines range from 1,000 to 10,000 euros for each infringement. This also means that the penalty for not reporting two products can be as little as 2 x 10,000 euros. Penalties can also be set retroactively for previous years.

The guidelines for extended producer responsibility in Germany are set out in the Packaging Act (VerpackG), the Battery Act (BattG) and the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act (ElektroG). This results in different obligations for products and their packaging. You can find more information here – EAR or here – LUCID.

Distributors without a national office increasingly need an authorised representative who takes responsibility for legal compliance with the distributor’s systems and authorities and its legal obligations.

WEEE stands for waste electrical and electronic equipment. The relevant EU directive 2012/19/EU on waste electrical and electronic equipment has been implemented into German law by ElektroG and aims to prevent waste by repairing old devices, reusing device parts or recycling materials. This promotes environmental protection and sustainable development. Since electronic products contain valuable and rare resources such as cobalt, reuse makes sense not only from an ecological but also from an economic point of view.

The WEEE registration number is a combination of a country code and an eight-digit number that allows the product to be uniquely assigned to the person who places it on the market. The number is issued by the EAR Foundation or the nationally responsible body and requires sensitive company data such as device type and brand. If you manufacture electrical and electronic equipment for the German market or are the first to place it on the German market, you must register it. The same applies abroad.

What obligations arise from regulations and guidelines?

On the one hand, the law requires registration in LUCID, the ZSVR register. This register is publicly available and makes it easier for the authorities to pursue violations of obligations. On the other hand, you must comply with the obligation to register in the dual system. A fee is charged for participation in this event, the amount of which depends on the quantity and type of materials to be disposed of. In addition, your products or your company are subject to data reporting obligations.

The above regulations apply to manufacturers and entrepreneurs who package and trade products, as well as online sellers who use them to ship their goods. Even as a retailer who buys your goods from a wholesaler, you must comply with the Packaging Act. The same applies to the import of packaging from abroad. Fulfillment service providers, on the other hand, will be exempt from this obligation from July 1, 2022 due to the amendment to the law.

Sales packaging includes, for example, food packaging and beverage cans, but also foil that protects a book in a shop from getting dirty. The condition is that the packaging contains goods. This type of packaging is subject to participation in the system.

Transport packaging is not subject to participation in the system, in the sense of being exempt from the obligation in the dual system. However, there is an obligation to register with LUCID. The law summarizes the term transport packaging as packaging that protects goods during transport from one seller to another or during storage. It can be made of cardboard, plastic or other materials. As a distributor of transport packaging, you are also obliged to dispose of it and must do so if the recipients of your goods request it from you. This requires a nationwide network of local waste disposal companies that will ensure collection, collection, sorting and recycling. You can also use CERTIFY’s services as an advisor and intermediary in the field of disposal of transport packaging.

During a non-binding conversation, we analyze your individual responsibilities and priorities and answer your questions.