EPR registration number in France: the IDU that marketplaces ask non-EU sellers for

France gives you one IDU (identifiant unique) for each EPR stream you sell into, and you do not apply for it yourself. The eco-organisme you join registers you in SYDEREP, ADEME’s declaration tool, and sends you the number. (An approved individual system gets it from ADEME.) Marketplaces ask for it. A missing IDU can cost up to EUR 30,000, on top of up to EUR 7,500 per unit or tonne. A seller not established in France also names a representative in France by written mandate.

What an EPR number is in every country is in EPR number in the EU. This page is what France adds. The other French rules are on the France page.

You hold one IDU for each stream, not one for France

ADEME issues an IDU to a producer for a single scheme. You hold as many IDUs as there are schemes concerned by the products you put on the French market, packaging included. ADEME’s own example is a smartphone: it can fall under the electrical equipment scheme, the household packaging scheme and the batteries scheme, so three IDUs (ADEME FAQ). The streams are listed in the EPR guide.

A producer is any company that puts products subject to EPR on the French market, whether it is the manufacturer, a distributor or an importer (ADEME). Service-Public counts selling and importing among the actions that bring a company under EPR (Service-Public). The duty to hold an IDU has applied since 1 January 2022.

Do this, in this order

1. List your streams. Check each product, and its packaging and batteries, against the scope of the schemes. A second-hand clothing seller is outside the textile scheme, which covers new products only, but its packaging still falls under the household packaging scheme (ADEME FAQ).
2. Name your representative in France, by written mandate, unless a marketplace established in France already meets your producer duties for the product. The next section has the law.
3. Join the eco-organisme of each stream, with the data in the table below. Your membership must cover every product category you sell, and for one stream you may need more than one eco-organisme. The eco-organisme registers you in SYDEREP and sends you the IDU. ADEME issues it within two working days of receiving all the information (arrêté of 11 February 2022, art. 1 IV). The time to sign the contract is the eco-organisme’s own, and ADEME cannot generate an IDU for a producer in a collective scheme (ADEME FAQ). To have the number ready before your first sale, join and have the eco-organisme register you before you launch.
4. Check the number in ADEME’s public search, by company name or IDU.
5. Show it in your general conditions of sale and on your website, and give it to each marketplace (sections below).
6. Report any change to your registration data within the month after it. If you stop being a producer, that is a change too (arrêté, art. 1 I).

A producer with its own approved individual system gets the IDU from ADEME instead. Service-Public notes that this route is complex and that joining an eco-organisme is generally simpler (Service-Public).

A seller outside France names a representative in France

Article L. 541-10-9-1 of the Code de l’environnement says that a person not established in France that is subject to EPR appoints, by written mandate, a person established in France as representative. The representative takes over every EPR duty named in the mandate. The text is in article 5 of loi no. 2026-602 of 8 July 2026, published in the Journal officiel of 9 July 2026 (Sénat). It names no EU or non-EU distinction, so it reaches a seller in another EU country too. The duty counts as met for products whose EPR duties an operator established in France, named in article L. 541-10-9, already fulfils. That article covers the online platforms and marketplaces that facilitate distance sales (Ministry). The adopted text sets no later start date for the new article.

ADEME’s IDU page still describes a representative as something you may assign “if you wish”, and does not mention the new article. The law’s text says you appoint one. For the IDU, the registration rule already allows for a representative: the eco-organisme sends the IDU to the producer or, where there is one, to the representative, and the representative gives its company name and SIREN or SIRET (arrêté, art. 1 II and III). Either way you give the representative your own registration data, because it needs it to register you (ADEME). The EU side of the role is in EPR authorised representative.

What to type in each registration field

You have no SIRET, and France does not ask you for one. The arrêté’s list for a producer not resident in France, and ADEME’s list, say this:

ADEME’s list also names, for a foreign company without a VAT number, the identification numbers of article R. 123-221 of the Commercial Code. The eco-organisme you join sends this data to ADEME and passes you the IDU (arrêté, art. 1 III).

Where the IDU must appear

You show your IDU in your general conditions of sale or, if you have none, in another contract document given to the buyer. A producer with a website shows it there as well, on the same terms as the notices of article 19 of the law of 21 June 2004. A seller who is not the producer gives the buyer, on request, the IDU of the producer that meets the duty for that product, and gets it from its supplier (ADEME, articles R. 541-173 and L. 541-10-10). Not showing it where it must appear is one of the breaches fined under article L. 541-9-5.

Marketplaces ask for your IDU

A marketplace is the EPR producer for the quantities it puts on the French market for third parties, unless it holds proof that those sellers have already met their duties, which means an IDU for each stream concerned (ADEME). A seller with no IDU therefore makes the marketplace liable for its quantities, which is why marketplaces ask. For packaging, the EU rule also bars a marketplace from letting you sell packaged goods before it has your registration number (EPR number in the EU).

To keep that proof, the marketplace records, for each seller, its name, trading name, marketplace ID, place of establishment, an intra-Community VAT number or, for a business not established in France, the registration number from its tax authority, the IDU, and the quantities sold by category (Service-Public). The Ministry’s FAQ, which the Ministry still marks as a draft, adds that ADEME gives marketplaces the full list of producers and IDUs so they can spot-check what you send. A marketplace that did not act with due diligence, for example by not checking that the number has a consistent format and matches the type of product sold, can in some cases be held liable (draft Ministry FAQ). That FAQ is dated 1 August 2022.

Etsy tells you where to enter the number: Shop Manager, Finances, Legal and tax information, then EPR Registrations, Add info under France. It says to show the number where buyers can see it, for example in your shop policies (Etsy).

If you have no IDU, a marketplace can instead act as your EPR intermediary by contract: it takes over your EPR duties and reports for you to the eco-organismes. The terms are the marketplace’s own, and its fees are not set by French law (draft Ministry FAQ).

What it costs

ADEME and the arrêté state no fee for the IDU itself. What you pay is the financial contribution to the eco-organisme you join. It is not a fixed amount: each eco-organisme sets environmental criteria that raise or lower it, and fixes them in your contract (Service-Public). The Ministry’s draft FAQ says a price is an essential part of a membership contract and a scheme cannot require its retroactive application (draft Ministry FAQ, question 11). The schemes’ own documents differ for a producer that sold before joining: Ecomaison charges three years back for products launched without a contract (France furniture EPR), and ecosystem labels its 2026 batteries scale as applying from 1 January 2026 (France battery EPR). A company with small quantities can sometimes file a flat-rate declaration, with a threshold set by the eco-organisme. Article L. 541-10-13 sets no volume below which a producer is exempt from the IDU (Code de l’environnement, copy in Ineris AIDA). The price of a representative in France is set by the representative.

Deadlines

If you do nothing

Under article L. 541-9-5, the minister notifies you of the facts and the penalty you face, you have one month to answer in writing or orally, and the minister then decides (Code de l’environnement, copy in Ineris AIDA). The penalties are made public (Ministry).

The per-unit amount takes into account the gravity of the breach and what you gained from it. The Triman logo and sorting-information duties are fined separately, under article L. 541-9-4 (Code de l’environnement, copy in Ineris AIDA). A producer that joins no eco-organisme and runs no individual system gets no IDU, so the first row applies to it.

A collective-scheme IDU can be withdrawn only by the eco-organisme. It takes effect if you have not joined another. If you stop meeting your duties after it is withdrawn, the same penalties apply (ADEME). An eco-organisme can end your contract if you do not pay your contribution, and then tells ADEME to withdraw the IDU (draft Ministry FAQ).

What does not apply

• There is no single French EPR number. A seller in three streams holds three IDUs, one for each.
• You do not register in SYDEREP yourself when you join a collective scheme. The eco-organisme does it.
• A SIRET is not required of a business not established in France.
• A number from another country does not stand in for the IDU. The German LUCID number, for example, is valid in Germany only. Other countries are in EPR number in the EU.
• The IDU does not replace the representative in France. The representative duty comes from a separate article of the Code de l’environnement.