EPR registration service — we handle your registration across EU countries

Selling in 5 EU countries means 5 separate packaging EPR registrations, 5 PRO memberships, 5 annual reports. If you sell electronics, add 5 WEEE registrations. Batteries? Another 5. It multiplies fast.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is the rule that whoever first places a product on a national market pays for collecting and recycling it at end of life. It sounds like one obligation. In practice it is a matrix: every waste stream, in every country, with its own register, its own scheme, its own reporting calendar and its own language. This guide explains what an EPR registration service does, why sellers struggle to do it themselves, and how Regonance handles it.

Why EPR is harder than it looks

The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR, Regulation (EU) 2025/40) has applied since 12 August 2026 and harmonises some packaging EPR rules across the EU. What it does not do — yet — is create one EU-wide register. Registration, fees and reporting remain national, and they run separately for each waste stream:

• Packaging — almost every product sold online ships in packaging, so almost every seller is in scope.
• Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) — anything with a plug, a battery or a cable.
• Batteries — batteries sold alone, inside products or with products, under the Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 and national schemes.
• Textiles and other streams — France already runs textile EPR, and more countries are following; some also cover furniture, toys or sports goods.

A registration in Germany does nothing for France. A packaging registration does nothing for WEEE. And a seller established outside a country often has to appoint an authorised representative there before it can register at all.

Marketplaces are the enforcement point most sellers meet first. In Germany, marketplaces may not list goods from sellers who cannot show a valid registration, and in France marketplaces must take on the obligations of unregistered sellers — which is why listings get suspended without warning.

What an EPR registration service does

A full EPR service covers the whole lifecycle for each country and waste stream you are obligated in:

1. Scoping. Working out which countries and streams you are obligated in. Most sellers need fewer than 27 countries — obligation follows where you sell to end users, not where you could ship.
2. Registration. Registering your company with each national register (in Germany, LUCID for packaging; stiftung ear for WEEE; the battery register for batteries), and obtaining your producer numbers.
3. Scheme membership. Joining a producer responsibility organisation (PRO) or compliance scheme where the country requires it, and signing the contract.
4. Authorised representation. Appointing a local representative where you are not established and the country requires one.
5. Initial volume declarations. Filing estimated volumes per material or product category so fees can be calculated.
6. Periodic reporting. Monthly, quarterly or annual reports of the actual volumes placed on the market, in each country's format.
7. Renewals and changes. Keeping registrations current as you add products, change packaging or enter new markets.
8. Proof for marketplaces. Supplying registration numbers in the format each marketplace expects.

Why sellers struggle to do this themselves

It is not that any single registration is hard. It is that every one is different:

• Different registries. Each country, and often each stream, has its own portal and its own account.
• Different languages. Many registries and schemes operate mainly in the national language.
• Different PRO systems. Some countries have one dominant scheme; others have several competing ones with different fee structures.
• Different reporting formats. Material categories, weight thresholds and units vary.
• Different deadlines. Reporting periods and annual declaration dates do not line up across countries.
• Different representative rules. Whether you need a local representative, and who can be one, varies by country and stream.

For a seller in two countries with one waste stream, this is an afternoon's work each year. For a seller in eight countries with packaging, WEEE and batteries, it is a standing administrative job — and the one most likely to be forgotten until a marketplace blocks a listing.

A short tour of the complexity

A few examples of how the same obligation looks different across borders:

This is a simplified view. The EPR Registration Playbook covers every EU country and waste stream, with registration templates and a tracker, and our country-by-country guide explains the order in which to tackle them.

How Regonance handles EPR

EPR is one of the nine regulations the platform maps. For every product and every country you sell into, the platform works out which streams apply, whether you hold a registration, whether a representative is needed, and when your next report is due. Registrations are tracked, reports are templated, deadlines are monitored, and each finding links to the national rule behind it.

As part of Managed Setup, our team handles EPR scoping and prepares everything each registration needs: the country and stream list, the volume estimates by material, the data each registry asks for and the templates for periodic reporting. On Ongoing Managed Compliance, we keep it current — new products, new markets and reporting deadlines are tracked and flagged before they bite.

Two honest limits:

• We do not act as your authorised representative in countries that require one, and scheme fees and authority charges are paid by you directly to the scheme. We can introduce you to EPR registration partners who provide representation and file on your behalf in each country.
• Fees vary by volume. The contributions you pay to each scheme depend on what and how much you place on the market. We help you estimate them; we do not set them.

What it costs

Two separate costs are involved, and it is worth keeping them apart:

1. Scheme contributions and authority fees. Paid to each PRO or register, based on your volumes. You pay these whoever handles the paperwork.
2. The service fee for handling registration and reporting. Dedicated EPR providers commonly charge per country per year; published prices we have seen range from around €1,000 to €2,000 per country per year for registration and reporting, with traditional agencies often higher.

Regonance's managed tiers cover EPR alongside the other eight regulations, from €3,500 for up to 25 products (Managed Setup) and €999/month (Ongoing Managed). If EPR in many countries is your only problem, a dedicated EPR provider may be the more efficient choice; if EPR is one of several gaps — as it usually is — handling it in the same workspace as your product safety, packaging and battery obligations avoids paying three providers to ask you for the same product data.

Five EPR mistakes that trigger suspensions

1. Registering in one country and assuming it covers the EU. Each national register is separate. A German LUCID number means nothing on Amazon.fr.
2. Registering but not joining a scheme. In several countries registration and scheme participation are two steps. Registration alone does not discharge the obligation.
3. Forgetting the shipping packaging. The cardboard box, tape, void fill and mailer bags you add at fulfilment are packaging you place on the market. So is the packaging a fulfilment centre adds on your behalf, in most cases.
4. Missing the second and third streams. A seller registered for packaging who adds a product with a battery now has battery obligations, and often WEEE too.
5. Not reporting. Registration numbers can be suspended or questioned when periodic volume reports are not filed.

B2C, B2B and the fulfilment question

Two questions change the answer for many sellers:

Who is the end user? Most EPR schemes distinguish household (B2C) packaging from commercial (B2B) packaging, with different obligations and sometimes different schemes. A seller supplying both consumers and trade customers may need to split volumes.

Who places the product on the market? When you sell through a marketplace that stores and ships your stock, you are usually still the producer for EPR purposes. When you sell to a distributor who imports into the country, the distributor may be the producer instead. Getting this wrong in either direction means either paying twice or not paying at all — and the second is the one that gets listings suspended.

A managed engagement settles both questions per country before anything is registered, so every registration is made once, in the right name.

A realistic example

A home-electronics brand based outside the EU sells a USB desk lamp on Amazon in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. The lamp ships in a cardboard box with a plastic insert, and contains a small rechargeable battery.

That one product triggers three streams — packaging, WEEE and batteries — in five countries: up to fifteen registrations, several scheme contracts, authorised representatives where required, and a reporting calendar with deadlines spread across the year. None of it is optional, and any one gap can suspend the listing in that country.

A managed approach turns this into one scope, one data request and one tracker: the brand supplies product weights and materials once, and every registration and report draws from the same data.

What to have ready

An EPR registration moves fastest when you can supply, for each product: the countries you sell to consumers in, the packaging materials and their weights (product packaging and shipping packaging separately), whether the product contains a battery or is electrical, your estimated annual units per country, and your company registration details. If you do not have the weights, a kitchen scale and an afternoon is usually enough to start — schemes allow estimates for the first declaration, corrected in later reports.

How to start

1. Find out where you are obligated. The free compliance quiz shows which regulations apply to your products, including EPR, by country.
2. Do it yourself with the playbook. The EPR Registration Playbook (€49) covers every country and stream.
3. Hand it over. Book a consultation and we will scope your EPR obligations alongside everything else.