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 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.

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.

7 MIN READ · UPDATED 7 JUNE 2026

Direct answer

REACH is the EU chemicals regulation. Three obligations attach to ecommerce sellers and brands placing physical products on the EU market:

Article 33(1) — communicate sufficient information to B2B recipients (distributors, retailers) on any Substance of Very High Concern (SVHC) present above 0.1% by weight per article, including at minimum the substance name
Article 33(2) — respond to a consumer request within 45 days, free of charge, with the same information
SCIP — notify the ECHA SCIP database for every article containing an SVHC above the threshold; the notification is public

The Candidate List (the legal source of which substances are SVHCs) is updated by ECHA roughly each January and June. Every update can pull new substances into products that were compliant the day before.

What "per article" actually means

The 0.1% threshold applies to the individual article, not the finished product or the unit of sale. This is the O5 doctrine confirmed by the Court of Justice (Case C-106/14). A laptop is not one article — its keys, cables, batteries and screws are each separate articles, and the threshold is measured against each one. A 0.5g zipper pull containing more than 0.5mg of a Candidate-List substance triggers the obligation, even if the substance is trace-level in the garment as a whole.

This is what makes REACH a Bill-of-Materials problem, not a label problem.

The categories most exposed

Textiles — DMFu, lead, certain phthalates in coatings and prints
Electronics — flame retardants, lead solder, certain plasticisers in cables
Toys — phthalates, lead, cadmium (also Toy Safety Directive territory)
Footwear and leather goods — chromium VI, certain dyes
Cosmetics packaging and homeware — BPA, certain phthalates in soft plastics

The Candidate-List recheck pipeline

An article that was clean in June 2026 can be non-compliant in January 2027 because a substance in its BOM gets added to the Candidate List. Two operational duties follow:

Re-screen the existing catalogue every time ECHA publishes an update (twice a year)
Re-notify SCIP for any product that newly crosses the threshold

Missing the recheck is the most common REACH failure mode in ecommerce, because the article passed when it was first listed.

Why this sits on Pro and Agency only

REACH is genuinely a data-layer regulation: it requires per-component composition data and an automated recheck loop. Regonance ships it as a Pro and Agency module because of the BOM ingestion, the SCIP export, and the recheck pipeline against the ECHA Candidate-List updates — the volume of data and the recurring obligation do not fit a starter workflow.

What Regonance does on REACH/SVHC

Captures the Bill of Materials per product (article-level granularity)
Computes the 0.1% w/w per-article check against the current ECHA Candidate List
Generates the Article 33 B2B communication and the consumer 45-day response template
Produces a SCIP-compatible export for ECHA notification
Re-runs the assessment automatically on every Candidate List update — typically January and June — and flags products that newly cross the threshold

Frequently asked questions

What counts as an article under REACH?+

An object that has a specific shape, surface or design determining its function to a greater degree than its chemical composition. The CJEU confirmed in Case C-106/14 that the 0.1% threshold applies per individual article — not per finished product. A zipper, a battery, a cable, a button are each separate articles.

What is the 0.1% w/w threshold?+

0.1% by weight per article. If the substance accounts for more than 1mg in a 1g article, Article 33 applies. The threshold is measured against the article that contains the substance, not the unit of sale.

How quickly do I have to respond to a consumer SVHC request?+

Within 45 calendar days under Article 33(2), free of charge. The request can be sent by email or via your website contact form — there is no prescribed channel.

What is SCIP?+

The Substances of Concern In articles as such or in complex objects (Products) database, run by ECHA since 5 January 2021. You must notify SCIP for every article you place on the EU market that contains an SVHC above 0.1%. The notification is public.

How often does the SVHC Candidate List change?+

ECHA updates the Candidate List roughly twice a year — typically in January and June. Each update can pull substances into your existing catalogue, so re-screening on the published date is operationally required.

Is REACH available on every Regonance plan?+

REACH/SVHC is restricted to Pro and Agency. The module requires Bill-of-Materials data ingestion, SCIP export, and the automatic Candidate-List recheck pipeline — these are too data-heavy for the starter tiers.

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AI-assisted informational guidance. Not legal advice. Consult qualified counsel for your specific situation.