WEEE in France for non-EU sellers (DEEE: ecosystem, Ecologic, Soren)

If you sell electrical or electronic equipment (EEE) to buyers in France from another country, France treats you as the producer, and the producer pays for the waste. You appoint a representative established in France, join an approved eco-organisme, and the eco-organisme registers you in SYDEREP and sends you the IDU. The household eco-contribution then goes on your invoice. This page is only what France adds to the EU WEEE rule. The IDU itself, and what to type in the registration form, are on the EPR number page. The other French rules are on the France page.

France treats a distance seller from abroad as the producer

ADEME quotes article R. 543-174 of the Code de l’environnement. A producer is anyone who, whatever the selling technique:

• is established in France and makes the equipment, or has it made, and sells it under its own name or brand;
• is established in France and resells under its own name or brand equipment made by others;
• is established in France and places on the market, as a business, equipment from a third country or another EU country; or
• is established in another EU country or in a third country and sells in France by distance communication, such as the internet, directly to private households or to users other than households.

The last point is you. The text names no place the parcel leaves from, and selling to business buyers counts as much as selling to households. Since 2018 the scheme covers all EEE, except the exemptions in articles R. 543-172 III and R. 543-172-1 (Ministry).

France splits EEE into eight categories: temperature exchange equipment, screens and monitors, lamps, large equipment, small equipment, small IT and telecommunications equipment, photovoltaic panels, and cycles and motorised personal transport devices. Large means one external dimension above 50 cm. An item is household equipment if private individuals are likely to use it, and professional equipment otherwise. Equipment that is packaged also falls under the household packaging scheme, and equipment with a battery may fall under the batteries scheme. Each scheme has its own IDU (ADEME). The other streams are in the rows of the France page.

A representative established in France is required

Article L. 541-10-9-1 of the Code de l’environnement says that a person not established in France that is subject to extended producer responsibility under article L. 541-10 or L. 541-10-9 appoints, by written mandate, a person established in France as representative. The representative takes over every EPR duty whose mandate it accepts. 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). Electrical equipment is among the products of article L. 541-10-1 (5°), which fall under extended producer responsibility under article L. 541-10 I (Code de l’environnement, AIDA copy). So the article reaches this stream.

• It names no EU or non-EU distinction. A seller in another EU country needs a representative as much as a seller in the United States.
• 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 online platforms and marketplaces.
• The adopted text sets no later start date.

The eco-organismes apply the same rule in their own documents. ecosystem says any company based abroad that wants to join must use a mandataire in France, and lists firms that offer the service (ecosystem). Ecologic says a producer based in an EU country designates a French mandataire to meet its EEE duties (Ecologic). ADEME describes the role: the representative takes responsibility for your EPR duties and declares your market placements through the eco-organisme, and you send it your registration data (ADEME, ADEME FAQ). The price of a representative is set by the representative, and no official figure exists. The EU side of the role is in EPR authorised representative.

Three eco-organismes are approved for household equipment

You meet your duty by joining an eco-organisme accredited for your categories, or by running your own accredited individual system. Service-Public notes that the individual route is complex and that joining an eco-organisme is generally simpler (Service-Public). The accreditation period is 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2027 (Ministry).

Source: ADEME. Five accredited individual schemes also exist; each covers one company’s own equipment. Your membership must cover every category you sell, and for one scheme you may need more than one eco-organisme (ADEME).

Do this, in this order

1. Sort your products by the eight categories and by household or professional use.
2. Appoint your representative in France by written mandate.
3. Ask the eco-organisme for membership. Both ecosystem and Ecologic send a membership contract to sign by electronic signature. ecosystem then has you declare your market placements, invoices the contribution, and registers you with ADEME once you have declared and paid (ecosystem). Ecologic registers you in SYDEREP once it has the signed contract, and puts the IDU in your member area afterwards (Ecologic). The time to sign is the eco-organisme’s own, and ADEME cannot generate the IDU of a member of a collective scheme (ADEME FAQ). To have the number before your first sale, ask for registration before you launch.
4. Show the IDU in your general conditions of sale and on your website, and give it to each marketplace. What it looks like in each marketplace is on the EPR number page.
5. Show the eco-contribution on invoices and online, and mark the product (sections below).
6. Declare every year (the deadlines are below).

What it costs in France

ADEME’s IDU page states no fee for the IDU. What you pay is the eco-contribution to the eco-organisme, which covers collection and treatment and funds repair and reuse (ADEME). It is a fixed amount per unit by equipment type, from a scale each eco-organisme publishes. Bonuses and penalties change it by product feature, including recycled plastic, repairability, spare-part availability, a removable battery, brominated flame retardants and fluorinated gases (ADEME). A representative in France charges its own price on top.

These are examples from ecosystem’s household scale, version of 27 March 2026, applicable from 1 January 2026, excluding VAT (ecosystem scale):

Each eco-organisme has its own scale and sets its own start date. ecosystem’s household scale above applies from 1 January 2026. Ecologic has already published its household scales for 1 January 2027 (Ecologic). Soren publishes a scale for photovoltaic modules by weight band, with a simplified option of EUR 5.00 per module. Its current scale applies to sales made from 1 July 2026 (Soren). Article L. 541-10-13 sets no volume below which you need no IDU (Code de l’environnement, AIDA copy). Small quantities have two routes: Service-Public says a flat-rate declaration is sometimes possible, with a threshold the eco-organisme sets (Service-Public). Ecologic’s simplified scale, applicable from 1 January 2026, has one price per unit, with no weight and no modulation, for producers with small quantities. Examples are EUR 25.55 for a freezer and EUR 0.30 for a computer cable, excluding VAT. The minimum annual invoice is EUR 200 excluding VAT, and Ecologic may ask you to move to the standard scale if you declare more than 5 tonnes (Ecologic scale).

The household eco-contribution goes on the invoice

For new household equipment, the cost of managing the waste is shown on the sales invoice in addition to the unit price. It cannot be reduced, each buyer passes it on unchanged to the final customer, and the customer is told at the point of sale or, for a distance sale, by any appropriate means. This is article L. 541-10-20 I of the Code de l’environnement (AIDA copy). The cost shown equals the cost of managing the waste. For professional equipment ecosystem says the separate display is optional (ecosystem). Not meeting these information duties is a third-class contravention, set by article R. 543-205 as decree no. 2020-1725 rewrote it (Décret 2020-1725, AIDA copy).

What goes on the product and the listing

• Sorting sign. A product subject to EPR sold to households carries the Triman logo or another sign that EU or member-state law makes compulsory. The crossed-out bin on electrical equipment is one. The sorting instructions sit beside it, on the product, its packaging or, failing that, in the documents supplied with it (article L. 541-9-3, AIDA copy; Service-Public). The bin and date mark are in the WEEE symbol guide.
• Environmental information. Service-Public lists the statements for EEE: recycled content, recyclability, gold, silver, platinum and palladium above 1 milligram, rare earths above 1 milligram, and hazardous substances above 0.1% by mass. A repairability index appears on sale of new EEE, and a durability index replaces it for some equipment.
• The IDU. It goes in the conditions of sale and on the website (ADEME).

A marketplace is the producer when you hold no IDU

A marketplace has producer status for the quantities it places on the market for third parties, unless it holds proof that those sellers already hold an IDU for the scheme (ADEME). It keeps a register for that proof (Service-Public). That is why marketplaces ask for your IDU. This page covers the electrical stream only. Household packaging is its own stream with its own IDU and rules, in the row of the France page.

Delivery brings a take-back duty

A distributor, distance sellers included, takes back used equipment (decree no. 2020-1455, arts. R. 541-158 to R. 541-166, AIDA copy). For EEE the one-for-one duty applies with no sales-area threshold. When you deliver, article R. 541-161 gives you these options:

• Take the used product back at the point of delivery.
• Use a nearby collection point that you finance and organise, or have organised. This works only for products that can be carried without equipment.
• Offer a free return service for the holder, such as the post. This works only where the features of the used product allow it.
• Let the holder send the used product straight to a waste operator under contract with an approved eco-organisme. This works only when that eco-organisme offers it.

The buyer is told the take-back terms, in a visible and readable way, before the sale is concluded. The text sets no condition on where the distributor is established, and it fines distance sales too. Failing to take back or to inform is a fifth-class contravention (article R. 541-166). The EU rule is in the WEEE guide.

Deadlines

What happens if you do nothing

The minister in charge of the environment notifies you of the facts and the penalty you face. You have one month to give written or oral observations, then the minister decides by a reasoned decision, and the sanctions are made public (articles L. 541-9-5 and L. 541-9-8, Code de l’environnement, AIDA copy). The fines come from article L. 541-9-5, except the sorting-sign and information duties, which have their own articles:

The per-unit amount takes into account the gravity of the breach and what you gained from it. A producer that joins no eco-organisme and runs no individual system gets no IDU, so the first row applies to it. Article L. 541-9-5 does not apply to the sorting-sign and information duties, which articles L. 541-9-4 and L. 541-9-4-1 fine (Code de l’environnement, AIDA copy). The Ministry’s page lists the L. 541-9-5 fines, and Service-Public the 3,000 and 15,000 amounts. The invoice and take-back duties above are contraventions on top.

What does not apply

• There is no separate WEEE number in France. The IDU is the number, and a German, Italian or UK WEEE registration does not stand in for it. A registration counts in its own country only (EU WEEE guide).
• You do not register in SYDEREP yourself when you join an eco-organisme. It does it for you.
• A SIRET is not required of a business not established in France. What to enter instead is on the EPR number page.
• Article L. 541-10-13 sets no quantity below which you need no IDU. Small quantities change the scale you use, not whether you need an IDU.