WEEE Directive: where you register when you sell electronics into an EU country

The producer duties of the WEEE Directive land on you in each country you sell into (Art. 3(1)(f)(iv)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 3, paragraph 1, point (f), point (iv)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), so selling into five countries means five registrations.

Who is the producer in the country you ship to

The Directive names four kinds of producer, “irrespective of the selling technique used” (Art. 3(1)(f)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 3, paragraph 1, point (f)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). For a business selling across a border, three matter:

The test is where your business is set up and whom you sell to. The definition says nothing about where the parcel leaves from, and selling to business users counts as much as selling to households: the producer is whoever “sells EEE by means of distance communication directly to private households or to users other than private households in a Member State, and is established in another Member State or in a third country” (Art. 3(1)(f)(iv)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 3, paragraph 1, point (f), point (iv)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Being a producer does not stop you being a distributor of the same equipment at the same time (Art. 3(1)(g)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 3, paragraph 1, point (g)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), which matters for take-back below.

A business set up in an EU country that resells, under its own name or trademark, equipment produced by others is the producer there, but not if the maker’s brand appears on the equipment (Art. 3(1)(f)(ii)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 3, paragraph 1, point (f), point (ii)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Whoever only provides financing under a finance agreement is not a producer unless it also acts as one (Art. 3(1)(f)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 3, paragraph 1, point (f)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

How to register under the WEEE Directive in each country

Each EU country keeps its own register of producers, including producers selling at a distance, and a distance seller “shall be registered in the Member State that they sell to” (Art. 16(1)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 16, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). You, or your authorised representative, enter the details online in that country’s register, and each national register links to the others (Art. 16(2)(a)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 16, paragraph 2, point (a)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 16(2)(d)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 16, paragraph 2, point (d)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The German register says it plainly: a registration in Germany is valid only in Germany, because each EU country wrote the registration rules into its own law (stiftung ear). In Germany the register is stiftung ear’s: WEEE registration in Germany. In France the register is ADEME’s SYDEREP, and a producer not established in France names a representative there by written mandate (L. 541-10-9-1): WEEE in France. In Italy the register is the Registro AEE, filed at a chamber of commerce through a representative in Italy: WEEE in Italy. In Spain the register is the Registro Integrado Industrial of the Ministry of Industry, registration is free, and the ministry’s guides require a representative in Spain of every distance seller: WEEE registration in Spain. The UK is outside the EU and has its own rule: WEEE UK rules for overseas sellers.

What every register asks for on registration (Annex X, Part A):

• name and address of the producer, or of the authorised representative together with the contact details of the producer it represents;
• the producer’s national identification code, including a European or national tax number;
• the category of equipment and whether it is household equipment or not;
• the brand name;
• how the producer meets its responsibilities, alone or through a collective scheme, including the financial guarantee;
• the selling technique, for example distance selling;
• a declaration that the information is true.

After that you report, for every reporting period, the quantity by weight and category you placed on its market (Art. 16(2)(c)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 16, paragraph 2, point (c)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Annex X, Part B).

Germany registers by type of equipment and brand, and the application must carry the guarantee or the other proof its law names (§ 6(1) ElektroG). A new brand or a new type of equipment is a new registration there.

When you need an authorised representative

An authorised representative is a person set up in the country you sell to who takes on your producer duties there. The appointment is always by written mandate (Art. 17(3)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 17, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The same role under the packaging, battery and textile rules is on EPR authorised representative.

• Your business is in another EU country and you sell at a distance. You must appoint one in each country you sell to (Art. 17(2)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 17, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), and if you are not registered there yourself, you are registered through that representative (Art. 16(1)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 16, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
• Your business is in another EU country and you are the producer there any other way. You may appoint one; you do not have to (Art. 17(1)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 17, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
• Your business is outside the EU. Each EU country sets this. Germany requires every producer without a German establishment to appoint one: in writing, in German, for at least three months, and only one per producer (§ 8(1) and (2) ElektroG). The German register tells a foreign company: “you cannot register yourself” (stiftung ear). Spain asks the same in its ministries’ guidance, though its decree names only sellers from other EU states: WEEE registration in Spain.

This is a different role from the GPSR responsible person and the authorised representative of the product-safety laws, though the names overlap. The roles are separated in EU authorised representative.

The duty runs the other way too. Germany obliges a business set up in Germany that sells at a distance directly to end users in another EU country to appoint a representative in that country before it sells there (§ 8(5) ElektroG). That is how Art. 17(2)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 17, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. works: each country enforces it on the sellers set up on its own territory.

How you pay for the waste

For equipment from households, you pay at least for the collection, treatment, recovery and disposal of the waste from your own products once it reaches a collection point. You choose to do it alone or by joining a collective scheme (Art. 12(1)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 12, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 12(3)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 12, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). When you place a product on the market you give a guarantee that its waste will be paid for; it can take the form of taking part in a scheme, a recycling insurance or a blocked bank account (Art. 12(3)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 12, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). For equipment used by businesses rather than households, the producer pays too, for products placed on the market after the Directive’s cut-off dates: 13 August 2005 in general, 13 August 2012 for photovoltaic panels, and 15 August 2018 for equipment that only came into scope then (Art. 13(1)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 13, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

The fees are not in the Directive. Each EU country, and each scheme within it, sets them.

How the crossed-out bin and the date mark go on the product

Every product carries the crossed-out wheeled bin and a mark showing it was placed on the market after 13 August 2005, printed on the product itself. The drawing, the date marks, the place on the product and the German and French extras are in the WEEE symbol guide.

Within one year of placing each new type of equipment on the market, the producer also makes information on re-use and treatment available free of charge to re-use centres and treatment facilities, including where dangerous substances sit in it (Art. 15(1)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 15, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

When you take old equipment back

Each EU country must let households return their electrical waste at least free of charge (Art. 5(2)(a)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 5, paragraph 2, point (a)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). When a distributor supplies a new product, the buyer can return an old one of the same type to that distributor, free, one for one (Art. 5(2)(b)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 5, paragraph 2, point (b)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). As an online seller you are a distributor as well as a producer, so this can reach you. A country may replace the one-for-one duty with another free route, and each EU country sets how it applies to sales at a distance.

Germany applies it to online sellers whose storage and shipping areas for electrical equipment come to at least 400 square metres. It applies it as well to sellers of food whose storage and shipping areas, all of them counted, come to at least 800 square metres, when they offer electrical equipment several times a calendar year or permanently. When they deliver a new appliance they take an old one of the same kind back free, including free collection from the home for categories 1, 2 and 4 (temperature exchange equipment, screens, large equipment). For other categories, and for small items no larger than 25 cm on any side, which buyers may return without buying anything, up to three per type, they provide return points within reasonable distance of the buyer (§ 17(1) and (2) ElektroG).

Buyers must also be told not to throw the equipment in household waste, where to return it, and what the bin symbol means (Art. 14(2)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 14, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Each EU country decides whether that falls on producers, on distributors or on itself. In Germany the producer must enclose that information in writing with every device (§ 18(4) ElektroG), and a distributor bound to take back waste equipment has its own information duty (§ 18(3) ElektroG). The German register lists the meaning of the bin among the things such a seller tells customers from the moment it offers the equipment (stiftung ear).

When a marketplace needs your registration number

The Directive itself puts no duty on marketplaces. Each EU country sets that, and Germany has set it hard. If a producer, or its authorised representative, is not properly registered, a distributor may not offer its electrical equipment for sale, a marketplace operator may not let it be offered, and a fulfilment service may not store, pack, address or ship it (§ 6(2) ElektroG). Every producer must state its registration number when offering equipment and on its invoices (§ 6(3)).

So a marketplace selling into Germany needs your German number before it may let an electrical listing go live, and a listing without one has no legal way to stay up there.

A distributor that intentionally or negligently offers new equipment from an unregistered producer for sale in Germany is itself treated as the producer (§ 3 No. 9 ElektroG). So a reseller selling in Germany has its own reason to want your number.

What happens if you do nothing

The Directive sets no figure. Each EU country lays down penalties that must be “effective, proportionate and dissuasive” (Art. 22Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 22Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). In Germany, failing to register, placing equipment on the market unregistered, leaving the registration number off, and failing to name an authorised representative can each cost a fine of up to 100 000 euros (§ 45(1) and (2) ElektroG). Before any fine, the marketplace and the fulfilment service are barred from handling the goods.

Why the same product usually needs two more registrations

Electrical equipment with a battery in it also falls under Regulation (EU) 2023/1542Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, Batteries RegulationThe whole regulationClick opens the law on the EU Publications Office., the Batteries Regulation, which runs its own producer register in each EU country; the row is on all EU rules. Its box falls under the packaging rules: PPWR. All three are extended producer responsibility, one logic applied three times, and the whole picture is in EPR.

The Commission must assess by 31 December 2026 whether the WEEE Directive needs revising, and propose a revision where appropriate (Art. 24aDirective 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 24aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Until an amending act is adopted, the Directive applies as it stands.

What the law leaves open

• Whether a seller from outside the EU may register itself. The Directive’s duty to appoint an authorised representative, Art. 17(2)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 17, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., is written for a producer set up in an EU country. Art. 16(1)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveArticle 16, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. says a distance seller not registered in the country it sells to is registered “through their authorised representatives as referred to in Article 17(2)Directive 2012/19/EU, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment DirectiveThe whole regulationClick opens the law on the EU Publications Office.”, which again points only at sellers set up in the EU. For a seller from outside the EU, neither article says whether it registers directly or needs a representative, and each EU country fills the gap in its own law. Meanwhile: plan on a representative in every country you sell to from outside the EU. Germany will not register you without one.
• What “established” means. Whether you are a distance seller or a producer set up in the country turns on being “established” there, and the Directive does not define the word. Germany’s register treats you as set up in Germany if your branch is in the commercial register, or if you run a permanent establishment there with permanent staff and business equipment; a German tax number is required, and a subsidiary is not a branch, though it may be a producer itself (stiftung ear). Meanwhile: stock held in someone else’s fulfilment centre meets neither part of that test, so in Germany it leaves you a distance seller.