What is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)? The EU's per-country register/report/pay regime, in plain English

EPR makes the company placing a product on the market financially responsible for its post-consumer stage. It runs per-country and per-stream — packaging, WEEE, batteries, textiles — with marketplace delisting now the sharpest enforcement lever. Here's what it actually is.

EU Responsible Person (EU RP): who needs one, what they actually do, and how to designate one

An EU Responsible Person is the EU-established economic operator that authorities can reach when a non-EU brand sells into the Union. Since 13 December 2024, every covered consumer product placed on the EU market must have one named on the listing, the product, or the packaging. Here is what the role does, who needs it, and what to put in place this quarter.

GPSR for Shopify sellers: the Article 19 block, the EU Responsible Person, and what changes for every EU-shipping store

Shopify is not a marketplace under GPSR Article 22 — which makes the seller, not the platform, responsible for Article 19 compliance on every listing. Here is the exact listing block, the EU Responsible Person requirement, the theme-template change, and the per-region catalogue audit every Shopify store needs to run for the EU 27.

What is a Digital Product Passport (DPP)? The EU's per-SKU data record, in plain English

The Digital Product Passport is the structured digital record the EU is rolling out under ESPR — batteries first (Feb 2027), textiles next, then most physical product categories through 2030. Here's what it actually contains, who has to issue one, and what to do this quarter.

What is GPSR? A plain-English overview

The EU General Product Safety Regulation has been enforceable since 13 December 2024. Here is what it actually changes for online sellers — the obligations, the dates, and the practical baseline.

What is REACH SVHC? The 0.1% w/w per-article threshold and Article 33 communication duty, in plain English

REACH — Regulation (EC) 1907/2006 — requires anyone supplying an article in the EU that contains a Substance of Very High Concern above 0.1% w/w per article to (a) communicate sufficient information up the B2B chain under Article 33(1), (b) respond to consumer requests within 45 days under Article 33(2), and (c) notify the ECHA SCIP database. The Candidate List is updated by ECHA roughly each January and June — every update can pull new substances into your existing products.

What is CE marking? The EU self-declaration that lets you place a product on the market

CE marking is the manufacturer's declaration that a product meets every applicable EU product directive — Toy Safety, LVD, EMC, RED, PPE or Machinery, in most ecommerce cases. It is self-declared (Module A) for non-Annex-IV products, but you must hold a technical file and a signed EU Declaration of Conformity (EN ISO/IEC 17050-1) for ten years. Amazon EU has intensified DoC requests since August 2025 and delists ASINs that cannot produce one.

What is EmpCo? The EU's anti-greenwashing law, in plain English

EmpCo — Directive (EU) 2024/825 — is the live EU law banning vague eco-claims, offset-based 'carbon neutral' product claims and unverified sustainability labels. Enforcement starts 27 September 2026. Here's what it actually does.

What is the EU Right to Repair Directive? Plain-English overview of (EU) 2024/1799

The Right to Repair Directive — (EU) 2024/1799 — forces manufacturers of regulated product categories (washing machines, dishwashers, fridges, vacuum cleaners, smartphones, tablets and the categories ESPR expands to) to repair on request, offer spare parts and tools at a non-discriminatory price, and provide an indicative repair price up front using the standardised European Repair Information Form (Annex I). Repaired products get a 12-month warranty extension. Member states must apply the directive by 31 July 2026.

What is PPWR? The EU's directly-applicable packaging law, in plain English

PPWR — Regulation (EU) 2025/40 — is the EU's new packaging law. Same text in all 27 member states. General application starts 12 August 2026, with tightening milestones through 2038. Here's what it actually does.

GPSR on Amazon EU: the Manufacturer Contact attribute, the EU Responsible Person field, and how Seller Central enforces Article 22

Amazon is the EU's largest GPSR enforcer. The Manufacturer Contact and Responsible Person attributes in Seller Central are mandatory on covered listings since 13 December 2024, and Amazon delists non-compliant ASINs automatically. Here is what each field expects, the per-marketplace differences, and the audit every Amazon EU seller needs to run this quarter.

Non-EU seller obligations: the actual EU compliance stack for brands shipping into the Union from outside

If you sell physical consumer products into the EU from outside it, six regimes attach to every order: GPSR, EU Responsible Person, EPR, PPWR, EmpCo, and (from 2027 onwards) DPP. Here is the full obligation stack, the deadlines that are already live, and the operational checklist for 2026.

Banned green claims under EmpCo: the six practices to remove from your marketing

Under Directive (EU) 2024/825, six specific marketing practices are banned outright across the EU 27 from 27 September 2026 — no balancing test, no defence. Here are the six, with concrete before/after examples.

PPWR packaging requirements: the seven checks every EU seller must pass

PPWR (Regulation (EU) 2025/40) imposes seven concrete packaging requirements that phase in between 12 August 2026 and 2038. This guide walks each check with what is enforceable now versus what to capture for upcoming milestones.

EPR registration by country: the EU 27 register/report/pay map sellers actually need

EPR is implemented per member state — LUCID, ADEME, CONAI, Verpact and 24 others. Here's how the national registers work for packaging, WEEE, batteries and textiles, what PPWR Art. 44 changes from 12 August 2026, and where non-EU sellers need an Authorised Representative.

DPP for textiles: what sellers should track now

The Digital Product Passport lands on textiles before most other categories. Here is what fashion and apparel sellers should be capturing in 2026 to be ready.

Seller responsibilities under GPSR

GPSR assigns specific duties to manufacturers, importers, distributors and fulfilment providers. This guide maps the obligations to the role you actually play — and what 'documented' means when an authority asks.

Required product information under GPSR

GPSR Article 19 lists the information online sellers must surface before checkout — manufacturer details, Responsible Person, identifiers, warnings, safe-use instructions. Here is what each field really means in practice.

EPR for online sellers: how marketplaces enforce it, and what gets your listings delisted

For e-commerce sellers, the sharpest EPR risk in 2026 isn't national fines — it's marketplace delisting under the Digital Services Act. Here's how Amazon EU, Otto, Bol.com and others enforce EPR, what pay-on-behalf actually costs, and how to pre-empt suspension.

PPWR for e-commerce sellers: the parcel, the marketplace, and what changes 12 August 2026

PPWR explicitly covers e-commerce packaging and names online marketplaces as responsible actors. From 12 August 2026, the shipping box, mailer and polybag are in scope — and listing-level enforcement is the sharpest stick. Here's the practical guide.

GPSR for Etsy sellers: handmade is not exempt, the Responsible Person field, and what changes for makers shipping into the EU

Etsy is a marketplace under GPSR Article 22, and 'handmade' carries no exemption from the General Product Safety Regulation. Since 13 December 2024, every Etsy listing shipped into the EU 27 must carry manufacturer, Responsible Person, and warnings — and Etsy delists listings missing them. Here is what an Etsy shop actually needs to do.

EmpCo for fashion and textile brands: the highest-risk sector, mapped to the six bans

Fashion is the most-scrutinised sector under EmpCo. Generic 'sustainable' collections, offset-based 'climate neutral' garments, and self-made eco-badges are squarely in the banned set. Here's the sector-specific playbook for 2026.

DPP and product traceability: the supply-chain data work the passport actually demands

The Digital Product Passport is a traceability instrument before it is a consumer-facing artefact. Here's the data chain — identifier, components, suppliers, substances, country of origin, evidence — that any DPP under ESPR or the Batteries Regulation will demand, and how to start capturing it now.

GPSR for online marketplaces

GPSR Article 22 layers product-safety duties on top of the Digital Services Act. Here is what online marketplaces must now do, and what sellers should expect from the platforms they list on.

Common GPSR mistakes online sellers make

After a year of GPSR enforcement, the same gaps appear over and over in marketplace suppressions and national-authority findings. Here are the seven most common — and what a clean fix looks like.

Ecommerce compliance readiness: the per-SKU, per-regime readiness framework for EU-shipping catalogues in 2026

EU compliance is not a single 'are we compliant?' verdict — it is a per-SKU, per-regime readiness state across GPSR, EU RP, EPR, PPWR, EmpCo and DPP. Here is the five-layer framework, the per-SKU score that drives prioritisation, and the catalogue-audit pattern that turns a regulatory backlog into a shippable engineering ticket list.

How much does EU product compliance actually cost in 2026?

A single electronic product sold in two EU countries costs roughly €10,900 in the first year through traditional consultants. Every cost category itemised, then priced four ways — DIY, platform, managed and consultant — at one, ten and fifty products.

Regonance vs. hiring a compliance consultant: what's the real difference?

Consultants sell bespoke expertise, platforms sell scale and consistency. An honest comparison on cost, speed, ongoing maintenance, documentation and regulatory currency — including the four situations where you should hire the consultant.

The hidden costs of EU compliance nobody tells you about

Lab testing, per-country EPR fees, three stacked representative appointments, translation, annual reporting that never ends, and the revenue cost of a suspended listing. The six cost categories that are missing from every quote you will receive.

Which EU regulations apply to your product? A simple guide

A plain decision tree across all nine EU mandates — consumer product, packaging, battery, environmental claims, electronics, chemicals, passports and repair — plus a product-type matrix and the four beliefs that get sellers suspended.

I sell on a marketplace to the EU — what compliance do I need?

Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, eBay, Bol.com, Zalando and Kaufland compared. The regulation does not change by marketplace; the enforcement intensity does — and an unchecked channel is a deferred risk, not a smaller one.

Non-EU seller? Here's every EU regulation that applies to you

UK, US and Asia-based sellers have the identical duty set — and usually need three separate representative appointments, not one. The full obligation list, the enforcement channel per origin, and a practical sequence to work through.

Do small businesses need EU product compliance? (Yes — here's why)

There is no size exemption in GPSR, PPWR, the Battery Regulation or EmpCo. Where thresholds genuinely exist, why marketplace enforcement is size-blind, and why a small catalogue is far cheaper to make compliant than sellers assume.

Every EU compliance deadline from now to 2031 — the complete timeline

The chronological reference: every deadline across all nine EU regulations from 2026 to 2031 and beyond, grouped by year, with what each one means, who it affects and which dates still depend on delegated acts.

EU compliance deadlines for e-commerce sellers: what's urgent right now

The six-month view: what marketplaces and authorities are checking today, what lands before spring 2027, what can honestly wait — and the three things to do this month if you do nothing else.

EU compliance for toy sellers and children's products

Toys carry the heaviest enforcement in the EU: the Toy Safety Directive, GPSR's vulnerable-consumer risk expectation, battery removability from February 2027 colliding with secured battery compartments, and the REACH restrictions that bite hardest on children's products.

EU compliance for fashion, textiles, and apparel brands

The textile passport is in the first wave of ESPR delegated acts, EmpCo makes fashion's sustainability vocabulary legally risky from 27 September 2026, PPWR covers polybags and hangers, and REACH has restricted textile substances for years. The full picture for an apparel brand.

EU Battery Regulation: does your product need compliance?

If your product contains or comes with a battery — built-in, removable, rechargeable or disposable — Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 applies to you, even if you only import finished goods. Which products are in scope, the five battery categories, the producer and deemed-producer rules, and how battery duties sit alongside GPSR.

Battery labelling requirements 2026–2027: what must be on your product

The Annex VI markings have applied since August 2026 and the QR code becomes mandatory on 18 February 2027. Exactly what has to appear on the battery, the packaging or the documentation — capacity, chemistry, hazardous substance symbols, collection symbol, size rules — and how it differs from GPSR traceability marks.

What is the Digital Battery Passport and how to prepare before February 2027

A full battery passport is required for LMT, industrial over 2 kWh and EV batteries — not for portable consumer cells, which get a QR code instead. What the passport contains under Article 77, why it is a supplier-data problem rather than a software problem, and a preparation plan by battery category.

Amazon flagged my listing for battery non-compliance — how to fix it

Amazon validates battery producer registration numbers at listing level for EU offers, and Germany's BattDG makes it a hard gate. What the platform checks, an eight-step route back to active, the five mistakes that cause suspensions, and how to stop it happening on your next launch.

Battery EPR registration: which EU countries require it and how to register

Battery producer registration is national, not EU-wide. Germany's BattDG register at the UBA, France's ADEME identifier, and the requirements in the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Austria and Sweden — plus the authorised representative rule and why one product can need packaging, battery and WEEE registration in the same country.

The removable battery rule: what changes for product design from February 2027

From 18 February 2027, portable batteries in consumer products must be removable and replaceable by the end user under Article 11. What that means mechanically, which product categories are affected, why the wet-environment exemptions are narrower than sellers assume, and how the transition treats stock already on the market.

Non-EU seller? Your battery obligations in the European market

If you sell products containing batteries into the EU from the UK, US, China or anywhere outside the bloc, you are the legal producer of those batteries. The producer definition, the per-country authorised representative mandate, registration, verifying supplier labelling before you import, and a 30-day plan.

The complete GPSR compliance checklist for e-commerce sellers

A working checklist for GPSR: establishing your role, the technical file, a real risk assessment, traceability and batch numbering, listing information duties, language requirements, incident reporting through the Safety Business Gateway, and recall mechanics — plus the five failures that actually cost sellers money.

EPR registration: which countries require it and how to register

Extended Producer Responsibility is still national. Germany's LUCID, France's ADEME identifier and Citeo, Spain's producer register and plastic tax, Italy's CONAI and environmental labelling, and the Netherlands packaging fund — plus a six-step method for working out what you owe and where.

What is the EU Battery Regulation and who does it affect?

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 covers batteries sold alone, inside products or with products — so most consumer electronics brands are battery producers. What already applies (registration, take-back, labelling, removability) and what the February 2027 digital battery passport will require.

EU Digital Product Passport: what brands need to know before 2027

Under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, product data moves from paper files to structured, machine-readable passports with tiered access. What a passport contains, which categories come first, why it is a data problem rather than a document problem, and what to organise during 2026.

PPWR is live: what EU packaging rules mean for your products right now

The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation applied from 12 August 2026, with no grace period for existing stock. Here is what is binding today — conformity documentation, PFAS and heavy metal limits, the 40% empty-space cap, recycled content declarations, Article 12 labelling and packaging EPR — and what arrives between 2028 and 2030.

EU compliance for consumer electronics sellers: the complete guide

Electronics is the highest-regulation-density category in the EU: GPSR, the Battery Regulation, the CE stack (LVD, EMC, RoHS, RED), PPWR, WEEE, REACH and DPP. How the CE directives interact, why WEEE and packaging are both required, and what to prepare now.

REVIEWED BY THE REGONANCE EDITORIAL TEAM

10 MIN READ · UPDATED 19 SEPTEMBER 2026

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Consumer electronics is the highest-regulation-density product category in the EU. A single USB power bank can sit in the scope of seven regimes at once: GPSR, the Battery Regulation, three or four CE directives, PPWR, WEEE, REACH and — from its ESPR delegated act — the Digital Product Passport. Nobody publishes the consolidated version, so here it is.

The full stack for an electronics seller

GPSR (Regulation (EU) 2023/988) sits underneath everything as the general safety net: risk assessment, technical documentation, traceability information on the product, safety information and warnings in the offer, and an EU responsible person under Article 16 if you are not established in the Union.

CE marking is not one thing. For electronics it is a stack of directives that apply cumulatively.

The Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 applies to any product containing or supplied with a cell, including a coin cell.

PPWR applies to the retail box, the inner tray, the poly bag and the shipping carton.

WEEE requires producer registration for electrical and electronic equipment — separate from your packaging registration, in every country.

REACH Annex XVII restricts substances in the article itself: lead in solder, phthalates in cable sheathing and soft plastics, nickel release in surfaces that touch skin.

DPP under ESPR arrives category by category through delegated acts, with electronics categories following textiles and batteries.

The CE stack, and how the directives interact

This is where electronics sellers most often go wrong, because they treat CE as a single checkbox.

Low Voltage Directive (2014/35/EU). Applies to equipment operating between 50 and 1000 V AC or 75 and 1500 V DC. A mains-powered device or its external power supply is in scope; a 5 V USB-powered gadget generally is not, although its supplied charger is.

EMC Directive (2014/30/EU). Applies to almost all electrical and electronic equipment: it must not emit excessive electromagnetic disturbance and must tolerate what its environment emits. Emissions and immunity are separate test suites.

RoHS (2011/65/EU). Restricts lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium and specified flame retardants and phthalates in the equipment itself, at homogeneous-material level. This is a supply-chain evidence problem: you need declarations and, where the risk warrants, analytical data from your component suppliers.

Radio Equipment Directive (2014/53/EU). Applies to anything with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC or a cellular module — and it supersedes the LVD and EMC for radio products, absorbing those requirements into its own assessment. It also carries spectrum-efficiency requirements and, for many products, cybersecurity and personal-data provisions. If your product has a radio, RED is your primary route and you should not simply add a Bluetooth module to an existing LVD/EMC file.

Practical consequence: adding wireless to an existing product is a new conformity assessment, not an amendment. Sellers who add a Bluetooth variant to a wired product line and reuse the declaration are non-compliant, and it is easy for an authority to spot.

The declaration of conformity lists every applicable act. The technical file must support all of them and is yours to hold for ten years — a supplier's test report is evidence inside your file, not a substitute for it.

Batteries in devices: three duties people miss

Registration is separate and national. Under Article 55, battery producers register in each Member State where they first make batteries available. That is a different register from packaging and a different one again from WEEE. Germany means the UBA battery register, LUCID for packaging and stiftung ear for equipment — three registrations for one product.

Removability from 18 February 2027. Article 11 requires portable batteries incorporated in appliances to be readily removable and replaceable by the end user, with narrow derogations. Sealed designs need redesign, and redesign needs supplier lead time measured in quarters.

Labelling and information duties are already live, with carbon-footprint and passport duties arriving for specified categories. Our battery scope guide walks through which category your cell falls into.

WEEE and packaging: both, not either

This trips up almost every first-time electronics seller. Packaging EPR and WEEE EPR are separate registrations, with separate fees, separate reports and often separate authorised representatives.

Germany: LUCID for packaging, stiftung ear for equipment, UBA for batteries. France: an identifiant unique per waste stream from ADEME, so three identifiers. Spain, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and Poland all follow the pattern. Marketplaces validate the numbers per stream, so having your packaging number does not stop a battery suspension.

Five markets × three streams is fifteen registrations and fifteen annual reports. Our country-by-country EPR guide has the per-market mechanics, and the hidden costs article prices them.

DPP for electronics: what to do before the delegated act lands

Digital Product Passports arrive under ESPR through category-specific delegated acts. Textiles and batteries are first; electronics categories are in the queue. The structural work is identical whatever the final field list looks like: a persistent product identifier, a data carrier on the product, a stable public passport page, material and component data, repair and spare-part information, and end-of-life instructions.

Sellers who already hold that data for GPSR, RoHS and the Battery Regulation are most of the way there. The ones who will struggle are those holding it in spreadsheets belonging to three different suppliers.

RoHS and REACH: the supply-chain half

The substance restrictions are the part you cannot assess from your own desk, because the information lives with your component suppliers.

For RoHS, collect material declarations at component level and keep them with the technical file. For REACH Annex XVII, know your restricted-substance exposure — phthalates in flexible PVC cable, lead in solder and brass, nickel in metal casings and connectors. Above 0.1% w/w of a substance of very high concern in the article, communication duties apply down the chain.

The practical control is contractual: require declarations at purchase-order level, require notification of any component change, and re-verify when a supplier substitutes a part. Most RoHS failures are silent component substitutions.

A sequence that works

Classify the product and list every applicable act. Decide the CE route — RED if there is a radio, LVD plus EMC if there is mains power, EMC alone for low-voltage electronics. Get the testing done. Assemble the technical file and sign the declaration. Register per country for packaging, batteries and equipment. Fix the listing data and labels. Then put the recurring obligations somewhere that will chase you.

Regonance assesses 431 obligations across all nine regulations against a single product record, which for electronics is the difference between seven separate compliance projects and one. Once you know what applies, the cost calculator will tell you what it comes to across your catalogue and markets.

Documentation set for an electronics product

What a complete file looks like, so you can check yours against it.

Declaration of conformity in your name, listing every applicable directive and every harmonised standard applied, with a named signatory, date and place. One declaration can cover several acts; it cannot omit one that applies.

Risk assessment covering electrical, thermal, mechanical, chemical and — where relevant — radio and cybersecurity hazards, written against foreseeable use and foreseeable misuse.

Test reports for EMC emissions and immunity, electrical safety, and radio performance where applicable, naming the standard and clauses.

Component and material declarations supporting RoHS at homogeneous-material level, and REACH restricted-substance status.

Battery documentation: chemistry, capacity, category, registration numbers per market, labelling artwork, and removability justification where a derogation is relied on.

Packaging data: component-by-component composition, weights, recyclability assessment and labelling artwork.

User information: instructions, warnings, safety information and disposal information, in each market language.

Registration evidence: packaging, WEEE and battery numbers per country, with the annual reporting schedule attached.

If any of those exists only in a supplier's email, treat it as missing.

Failure patterns specific to electronics

Adding wireless without reassessing. A Bluetooth variant of a wired product is a new conformity route under the Radio Equipment Directive, not an addendum.

Reusing a charger's certification for the device. The external power supply and the device are separate products with separate obligations, and the supply's compliance says nothing about yours.

Silent component substitution. A factory changes a capacitor, a cable, a connector or a coating and your RoHS and EMC evidence no longer describes the product you are shipping. Contractual change-notification is the only real control.

Registering packaging and forgetting WEEE. Three streams, three registers, three numbers. Marketplaces validate them separately.

Treating firmware as out of scope. For radio products, cybersecurity and software-update integrity are increasingly part of the assessment, not an IT matter.

Sequencing for a new electronics launch

A realistic order that avoids the expensive rework.

Classify against every applicable act before spending anything. Choose the CE route — Radio Equipment Directive where there is wireless, Low Voltage plus EMC where there is mains power, EMC alone for low-voltage electronics. Get supplier declarations for RoHS and REACH before tooling, because a substance problem found after tooling is a redesign. Test. Assemble the file and sign the declaration. Register per country and per stream. Produce labels and manuals in every market language. Then set up monitoring, because standards, tariffs and marketplace requirements all move.

Regonance assesses 431 obligations across all nine EU regulations against a single product record, which for electronics collapses seven parallel compliance projects into one view — including the interactions, like a battery pulling in registration duties in the same markets where your packaging is already registered. Once you know the scope, the calculator prices it across your catalogue and markets.

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Every EU deadline, on one page.

Nine mandates, each with dates attached between now and 2030. Get the calendar, plus a note when the guidance behind an article like this one changes.

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Compliance guidance based on published EU regulatory texts. Not legal advice. Consult qualified counsel for your specific situation.