Fulfil packaging compliance & collect your EPR evidence

EPR stands for "Extended Producer Responsibility". The underlying principle makes merchants and manufacturers responsible for the entire life cycle of their products and related components, including their disposal, in the service of environmental protection.

In Germany, packaging, electrical appliances and batteries are covered by the Extended Producer Responsibility of those who put them into circulation in this country.

The current high level of attention on the EPR is essentially due to the amendment of two laws: the Packaging Act (VerpackG) and the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act (ElektroG). In the future, both will oblige marketplaces to check the compliance of their dealers with regard to the requirements. In this context, marketplace operators speak of EPR as a collective term for all three aspects.

The marketplaces' obligation to monitor compliance with the Packaging Act is into effect since July 2022. The control obligation for electrical appliances followed in January 2023.

The Packaging Act imposes three obligations on sellers who ship packaged products to German end consumers:

1. Licensing of your annual packaging volumes with a dual system (also called system participation). For this purpose, you can use Lizenzero, the online shop of the acknowledged dual system Interzero Recycling Alliance and preferred partner of eBay: Enter volumes now
2. Registration in the packaging register LUCID
3. Data reporting to the packaging register LUCID (name of the dual system and licensed packaging volumes)

The Packaging Act was amended in July 2021. One of the changes in the law affects the operators of marketplaces such as eBay: In order to create an additional control mechanism, they will have to check from July 2022 whether all traders who ship to Germany comply with the requirements of the Packaging Act.

If the merchant is unable to provide proof of compliance, a sales ban will take effect and the marketplace operators will have to restrict sales to Germany. Violations of this will be punished with high fines for the marketplaces.

You need to present two proofs to eBay:

1. LUCID registration number (sometimes also called EPR number): You will receive this number after successful registration in the LUCID packaging register.
2. Licensing/System Participation Certificate: You can download the Lizenzero-Participation-Certificate in your customer account after you have concluded your license agreement.

The Packaging Act formulates a total of three obligations for merchants of packaging in Germany (also see question #1). These include the licensing obligation (also known as the system participation obligation) and the registration obligation.

Both obligations must be fulfilled at two different contact points:

1. The licensing obligation refers to the fee-based participation of your packaging and must be carried out by you at a dual system such as Interzero Recycling Alliance (via Lizenzero). In return, Interzero Recycling Alliance takes over the disposal and recycling process of your packaging for you.
2. The registration obligation, on the other hand, is carried out by you at the control authority Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister (LUCID).

The catalog of obligations is completed by the data reporting obligation: This simply means that you enter the name of your dual system and your licensed packaging volumes in LUCID.

Since the amendment, there is an obligation to monitor and new responsibilities for fulfilment service providers. If commissioning traders cannot provide evidence of system participation, they are not permitted to neither sales nor other activities (offering products, packaging, shipping, etc.) may be provided. In addition, the commissioning trader is responsible for licensing without exception, and in no case the fulfilment service provider.

The special feature of dropshipping is that the goods are packed directly by the sender and shipped to the end customer. Traders themselves therefore have no physical contact with the product or the packaging. The sender of the goods is therefore obliged in terms of the Packaging Act - both for the primary sales packaging and for the shipping packaging.

Attention: In the course of the amendment to the Packaging Act, online traders who use marketplaces must be able to present proof of licensing from 1 July 2022. This means that traders who use dropshipping and do not have a licensing obligation themselves also need to take action! You must request the registration number (EPR number) from your sender. When depositing the EPR number with the marketplace, you must take care not to pass it off as your own, but make it clear that it is the number of a third party.