Packaging licencing in Germany –
how it works

A packaging licence must be taken out if you as a company use packaging that accumulates with end consumers. In return, the dual systems take care of the collection, sorting and recycling of your packaging.

We'll show you what to do!

LICENSE PACKAGING NOW

All-round carefree: How to take out your packaging licence

Calculate licence fee

Enter your packaging quantities per material in our calculator.

If you do not know your quantities, our calculation tool will help.

Create a Lizenzero account

The next step is to create your customer account.

This will give you access to many great services that will make your life easier (e.g. quantity download for LUCID).

Close licence

Select your payment method and confirm the conclusion of the contract. That's it!

TO THE CALCULATOR

Achieve even more

We now not only recycle your packaging and thus save large amounts of greenhouse gases and primary raw materials, but also renaturalise a piece of moorland under the motto 'We want Moore'.

You can find all the information here.

Would you like more details? This is the step-by-step guide to your packaging licence

To obtain a legally compliant packaging licence, go through the following steps:

CALCULATE AND LICENCE VOLUMES NOW

Choose a suitable dual system. How about us, Interzero Recycling Alliance via Lizenzero?
Calculate your planned annual packaging volumes per material type (fraction). You can either pull this from your ERP system, calculate it "on foot" or simply use our calculation tool.
Then enter the calculated volumes into the calculator of your dual system; as a standard, the expected licence fee will be displayed directly and transparently.
Follow the next order steps and conclude a contract for the annual volumes with your dual system.

Register with the Central Agency Packaging Register (ZSVR) via the LUCID reporting register, stating your company name, the type of company, a contact person, the name of your dual system and the volumes licensed there.
Activate your LUCID account via the link you received by e-mail after registration. Deposit your registration number with your dual system - you will find it on the dashboard after logging into your LUCID account and will receive it by email.

Your packaging licence can be taken out online, for example with us – Lizenzero, the online shop of the dual system Interzero Recycling Alliance – in just a few steps.

What our customers say

Anna Noß – Founder
Kinderwärts

As a small company, the packaging law was a hurdle for me. But Lizenzero helped me through it step by step and without complications.

Astrid Krings - Founder
Purabyo

Lizenzero immediately caught our attention and gave us a good feeling. The quantity reporting for the past year and the forecast reporting for the next year are super intuitive and user-friendly. The quantity download for LUCID is also very helpful and time-saving. Lizenzero makes packaging licensing easy and I am glad that this service exists.

Ingegerd Ribers Wellsandt - Founder and Managing Director
ingegerd Ribers Textil

When the obligation to license my packaging came up, I quickly found Lizenzero via Google search. Lizenzero was easy to use and simply intuitive. That's why I chose Lizenzero.

Luis Herget - Founder and Managing Director
BLÆK Coffee

We see the packaging law as an incentive to pay even more attention to producing less waste. Nevertheless, for us as a start-up, it had to be quick and easy. And that's exactly what we found with Lizenzero. Lizenzero is uncomplicated and professionally designed. We could simply enter our quantities and we were done.

Paol Luzian Groß - Founder and Managing Director
gaia

When we were informed that we had to license our packaging, we directly compared the providers via online research. Lizenzero cought us immediately! Everything was very smooth, good information and good customer service! That convinced us.

Moritz Bauer- Managing Director
minjo Coffee

As a young start-up, the topic of packaging licensing was new to us. We compared different providers and ended up with Lizenzero. For us, Lizenzero simply made the most likeable and best impression. We liked the website and the design and the price-performance ratio was also right. The calculator was also very cool, it was all set up simply and went super easy. It just fit.

Viola Kukclinski-Hagewiesche - Owner
ViolasWollWerk

Lizenzero made the issue of packaging licensing totally easy for me. I clicked through the site, click click, and the licensing was done. This made this part super easy for me during the difficult time of founding a company. That was the decisive point why I chose Lizenzero.

Philipp Rodemann - Managing Director
FAIRFITTERS

Everything was just right for us with Lizenzero: From the price-performance ratio to the positive customer reviews to the easy handling through the calculator.

Cathrin Tach - Managing Director
Pappsalon

We are a small company, so we can't make a doctoral thesis out of the Packaging Act. With Lizenzero we have landed a stroke of luck - manageable and the licensing does not require more time than absolutely necessary.

Anja Rausch - Business Development Manager
Pick-a-Pea Bio Food

What we like about Lizenzero, apart from the appealing structure of the website, is the simple handling of registering packages. It saves us a lot of time and is cost-efficient. The fact that we have found a partner from the region in Lizenzero makes us even happier!

Christian Koch - Owner
BLUMEN-KOCH BERLIN

As florists, we surround ourselves with beautiful things every day - the appealing presentation of Lizenzero corresponds to this one to one. The fact that the store also keeps the office catie effort as narrow as possible and nice and simple, then gave the final tipping point for Lizenzero.

Katrin Lange - Owner
Naturzwerge Kidswear

Thanks to Lizenzero packaging licensing was very easy. With the self-explanatory documentation of how to license I was guided very quickly and easily through each step. All in all it took me only 10 minutes to complete the process and register my shop. Terrific!

Nico Meisner - Managing Director
Buster Surfboards

We can recommend Lizenzero without reservation. We have looked at several providers. We chose Lizenzero because they make it easiest for customers to see through the packagingG and the signup / registration on the website is very simple and fast.

Peitz -
Managing Director
Holzspielzeug Peitz

Interseroh has given me all the information I need about packaging licensing. The company’s long experience speaks for itself, and I can be sure that Interseroh will help me to fulfil my obligations from the German Packaging Ordinance and the new German Packaging Act. And I can also get everything done easily online!

Beatrice Rittelmeyer - Managing Director
Leithner's Shop

I have only a limited amount of time and cannot afford to spend day after day working out my packaging licensing. At Lizenzero, I was guided step-by-step through the registration procedure. Registration is completed in just a few clicks. And the price is very fair, too. The peace of mind from knowing my packaging is licensed means I can focus once again on my customers.

Who has to take out a packaging licence?

As a company, the licensing obligation applies to you if you act as a so-called first distributor. This means that you fill sales packaging with goods for the first time and distribute it to end consumers. Sales packaging includes all product or shipping packaging, including filling materials and packaging materials, that your customers generate as waste at home. Service packaging, such as bread roll bags or pizza boxes, are also considered sales packaging.

As a rule, it is not the manufacturer of the packaging material that is considered the first distributor, but you as the retailer. You use the corresponding packaging material to protect, transport or pass on your goods and thus put it into circulation for the first time. However, as a product manufacturer, you can also be the first distributor if you fill your goods into product packaging and/or outer packaging and then deliver them in packaged form to your distribution partners or points of sale such as shops or directly to your end consumers.

NOTE: If you plan to put sales packaging into circulation, you must licence the volumes and material types of the packaging with a dual system in advance. Packaging licensing is required by law under the VerpackG and is required from the very first packaging, regardless of size, material or weight.

Tip: Transport packaging that is only used for the transport of goods between manufacturers or retailers is an exception.

Variante a) Außer der Lizenzierung Ihrer Verpackungen haben Sie noch nichts weiter unternommen

In diesem Fall fehlen nun noch 2 wichtige Dinge:

1. Die Registrierung bei der Zentralen Stelle:

durchlaufen Sie den Registrierungsprozess für „Hersteller“ über die Registerdatenbank LUCID Schritt für Schritt
geben Sie nachträglich die von der Zentralen Stelle vergebene Registrierungsnummer in Ihrem Lizenzero-Kundenkonto ein

2. Die Datenmeldung bei der Zentralen Stelle:

Geben Sie bei LUCID zusätzlich Ihre bei Lizenzero beteiligten Verpackungsmengen pro Material sowie den Namen Ihres dualen Systems (INTERSEROH Dienstleistungs GmbH) an

Variante b) Sie haben sich bereits bei der Zentralen Stelle Verpackungsregister registriert

Dann fehlt mit der Datenmeldepflicht bei der ZSVR (siehe links) nur noch ein letztes To do:

Tragen Sie Ihre über Lizenzero beteiligten Verpackungsmengen und den Namen Ihres dualen Systems bei LUCID ein

Checktipp:

Haben Sie Ihre Registrierungsnummer der Zentralen Stelle schon in Ihrem Lizenzero-Kundenkonto hinterlegt?

CONCLUDE PACKAGING LICENCE

A licence to protect the environment

What's behind it:

By taking out your packaging licence, you not only fulfil your duties under the German Packaging Act, but also do a good deed for the environment.

The Packaging Act regulates the handling of packaging waste in Germany. One of the aims of the law is to reduce packaging waste in the long term and promote recycling. To implement this, companies that put packaging into circulation that is disposed of as waste by end consumers are held responsible as part of their extended producer responsibility (EPR).

This is how it works:

You assume your extended producer responsibility with regard to your packaging by concluding a licence agreement with a dual system of your choice (packaging licensing or system participation).

In the context of packaging licensing, your dual system charges licence fees, calculated on the basis of the volume and material of your packaging. Your dual system uses these to finance the collection, sorting and recycling of the packaging waste. In addition to system participation, the Packaging Act also requires registration in the LUCID Packaging Register of the Central Agency Packaging Register (ZSVR) and regular reporting of your licence quantities to LUCID.

CALCULATE LICENCE FEES

This is what lies behind the packaging licence:
The legal basis

The legal basis for packaging licensing has existed since the German Packaging Ordinance came into force in 1991. At the time, the ordinance supplemented the Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management Act (KrWG) and was aimed at companies that place sales or secondary packaging on the market. This means that companies have had to licence their packaging since 1991.

The Packaging Ordinance was repeatedly updated until 2017 and was finally replaced by the current Packaging Act (VerpackG) in January 2019.

Good to know: The Packaging Act also introduced the Central Agency Packaging Register (ZSVR) as a supervisory body and the obligation to register centrally with the ZSVR (Section 9 VerpackG).