EPR for packaging: the registration numbers sellers need

Extended producer responsibility means the business that puts packaging on a market finances its collection and recycling and reports how much it put there. Since 12 August 2026 the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (EU) 2025/40, the PPWR, sets the rules across the EU. Registration, fees and reporting still run through a register in each Member State.

The PPWR separates two roles that often fall on the same company: the manufacturer of the packaging, responsible for its conformity, and the producer, responsible for EPR in the country where the packaging becomes waste. For a webshop shipping its own goods in its own boxes, both usually mean you.

The Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister (ZSVR) explains that on 12 August 2026 the PPWR and the Verpackungsrecht-Durchführungsgesetz (VerpackDG) replaced the Verpackungsgesetz. The basic duties stay: register, join a dual system for packaging that ends up with end consumers, and report your quantities. What changed is who counts as the producer, and some new duties.

Registration in the LUCID packaging register is free and only the producer can do it; it cannot be handed to a service provider. LUCID asks for company master data, a VAT or tax number, the packaging types and the brand names visible on the packaging (ZSVR registration guide). Shipping packaging such as cartons, mailers, tape and filler always needs system participation.

Two points matter for marketplaces. Since 12 August 2026, a seller based abroad that ships straight to end customers in Germany without a German establishment must name an authorised representative in LUCID. And marketplaces, fulfilment providers, dropshipping sellers and other resellers must regularly check that their partners are registered; the ZSVR offers them a register download for that.

France runs EPR (responsabilité élargie du producteur, REP) per product sector, household packaging among them. A business in a sector joins an éco-organisme or sets up its own system and receives a unique identifier, the IDU, from ADEME for that sector. According to Entreprendre Service Public, the IDU must appear in the general terms of sale, or another contractual document when there are none, and on the website.

Online marketplaces are covered too. A marketplace only escapes the EPR duties for a product when a third party, such as the seller or manufacturer, already met them and the marketplace keeps a register with that party's IDU. So expect a French marketplace to ask for your IDU per sector.

Household products under EPR also carry the Triman logo with sorting instructions on the product, its packaging or, failing that, the documents supplied with it.

In the Netherlands, producers and importers are responsible for the packaging they put on the Dutch market. The producer organisation is Verpact, formerly Afvalfonds Verpakkingen. According to business.gov.nl, a business that puts 50,000 kg or more of packaging on the Dutch market in a calendar year pays the packaging waste management contribution to Verpact and reports its quantities each year. Below that threshold you must still be able to show the weight and materials of the packaging you put on the market.

EPR lives on two levels. Registration numbers belong to you as a seller, per country and sometimes per sector. The quantities you report, and the fees you pay, come from what each product ships in. If packaging weights per material sit next to each product, a yearly report is a sum instead of a guess.

Packaging is one of several compliance topics that become fields on a product. The GPSR guide covers the manufacturer, responsible person and warnings every EU listing must show. The CE marking guide covers the declaration of conformity for toys, electronics and other regulated products. The digital product passport will add sustainability data per product group.