Two things about Austria catch sellers out. An ordinance, not the producer, decides whether a pack counts as household or commercial packaging. And a company shipping to Austrian households from abroad is not allowed to register with a scheme itself.
Both facts change what you need from Austrian EPR software, because the data work and the filing can end up with different parties. Below are six providers ranked on how much of the Austrian job each one takes off you.
Austria decides whether your pack is household or commercial
Every Austrian packaging duty starts with one classification, and it is not yours to make. The split runs between household packaging (Haushaltsverpackungen) and commercial packaging (gewerbliche Verpackungen), and it sets which system you contract with and which tariff you pay. It is one part of producer responsibility in Austria, which runs electronics, batteries and single-use plastics through the same register.
The test is written into the rules rather than left to judgement.
| Counts as household packaging | Counts as commercial packaging |
|---|---|
| Surface area up to 1.5 m², or nominal volume up to 5 litres, or expanded polystyrene up to 0.15 kg, where it arises in private households or at collection points comparable to households | Everything in scope that falls outside those limits, or that arises away from households |
| Service packaging, carrier bags, glass packaging and beverage carton packaging, whatever their size | Larger transport and grouped packaging that stays inside a commercial setting |
The allocation per product group is fixed by a separate ordinance, the Verpackungsabgrenzungsverordnung, and Austria's own business chamber puts it bluntly, the rules are binding on everyone. Your system cannot agree a different reading with you, and neither can your supplier.
Both sides of the split need a system contract
For household packaging this has always been true. Since 1 January 2023 it is also true for commercial packaging, so a business selling only to other businesses is inside the scheme too.
That is the part sellers most often get wrong, because in many EU countries a B2B-only seller stays outside the collective system.
The cadence follows your fee rather than your size
Once you are registered, how often you report depends on what you expect to pay.
- Up to 1,500 EUR a year, report annually.
- Between 1,500 and 20,000 EUR, report quarterly.
- Above 20,000 EUR, report monthly.
The annual report for household and commercial packaging is due by 15 March for the year that closed, with reusable packaging following by 30 March. Systems may also offer a simplified route for small volumes, up to 1,500 kg of household plus 1,500 kg of commercial packaging.
The household side runs through six systems and glass sits apart
Registration in Austria is centralised. Collection is not. You register once in EDM, the environment ministry's electronic data management portal, and then contract with an approved collection and recovery system for the categories you place.
The ministry publishes the approved systems under the Waste Management Act. On the list published in September 2023 there were six for household packaging.
| Approved household system | Collection categories it covers |
|---|---|
| ARA Altstoff Recycling Austria | Paper, metals, light packaging |
| AGR Austria Glas Recycling | Glass only |
| Bonus Holsystem | All categories |
| European Recycling Platform (ERP) Austria | All categories |
| Interzero Circular Solutions Europe | All categories |
| Reclay Systems | All categories |
Five of those six also carry commercial packaging, across paper, metals, plastics, EPS, composites, ceramics, wood, textiles and biogenic packaging materials. AGR is the exception, appearing on the household list only.
Glass is the trap in that table
ARA is the largest system and the one most foreign sellers are pointed to, but its household approval covers paper, metals and light packaging, and not glass. Household glass sits with AGR.
So a producer selling jars or bottles can end up with two Austrian counterparties for one catalogue. The two organisations share an address in Vienna, which softens the admin, but it is still two relationships rather than one.
One catalogue can therefore end up pointing three different ways, as the diagram below shows.
A distance seller cannot file its own Austrian report
This is the rule that most changes which software makes sense, and it is widely mis-stated, so it is worth being precise. Austria has two representative provisions and they do opposite things.
The mandatory one covers selling to households
A foreign distance seller must appoint a Bevollmächtigter, an authorised representative established in Austria, for packaging placed on the Austrian market from 1 January 2023. The wording is an obligation, not an option, and three details around it bite in practice.
- You may hold only one such representative at a time.
- Appointing, changing or ending a mandate takes effect only at the end of a calendar quarter.
- If a mandate lapses mid-quarter, you must ensure a new representative continues the duties with no gap.
Read those together and switching provider in Austria is a scheduled move, not a same-week decision. Losing a representative in February does not give you until April to think, because the duties still have to run unbroken.
The optional one covers selling to businesses
The second provision points the other way. A company established in another EU member state that sells packaging in Austria to buyers other than private final consumers may appoint a representative, who then answers for the producer duties. That one is a choice.
Either way the representative must be based in Austria, hold a domestic delivery address, carry responsibility under Austrian administrative law, and be appointed by certified power of attorney in German or English naming the scope and the collection category.
Plenty of provider pages blur these two into a single sentence about foreign sellers. If you are selling to Austrian consumers, the mandatory rule is the one that applies to you, and no software changes that.
Deposit containers leave your system report
Austria's single-use deposit started on 1 January 2025 under the Waste Management Act and the Deposit Ordinance, at 25 cents a container, run by a non-profit central body, EWP Recycling Pfand Österreich.
It covers sealed plastic beverage bottles and metal beverage cans from 0.1 to 3 litres, including their labels, caps and lids.
The important part for reporting is what it removes.
Containers in the deposit scheme are exempt from the obligation to hold a compliance agreement with a packaging collection and recovery system, so they drop out of your system data reports.
The duty does not disappear though, it moves. You report those containers to EWP instead, including the recycled-material share, and pay the litter clean-up charges there.
What stays behind with your system
The bottle leaves. The packaging around the bottle does not.
- Secondary and transport packaging for deposit containers, such as tray films, displays and cardboard, stays in the system report under the beverages product group.
- Beverage cartons and pouches stay, because they carry no deposit.
- Containers for deposit-exempt drinks stay, milk and dairy products among them.
- Reusable packaging used alongside deposit containers stays, EUR pallets included.
- Glass and metal bottles with plastic caps carry no deposit, so they stay too.
This is where a tool that holds packaging only as a category total starts to hurt. Splitting a six-pack into a deposit-bearing can and a non-deposit shrink film is a pack-level data question, and it now has two different destinations.
Who is allowed to act for you and who only holds the data
The six providers below climb the same four-step ladder, from tools that only organise your packaging data to firms that put their own name on your Austrian filing. No rung is better in the abstract, it depends on whether you are established in Austria.
Worth saying plainly, ours is the shortest bar on that chart. Repax stops at the data, so if your priority is getting the Austrian filing off your desk entirely, read the two longest bars first.
What we looked for in Austrian EPR software
Austria rewards a specific set of things, so the ranking runs on these rather than on general polish.
| What we looked for | Why it matters in Austria |
|---|---|
| Pack-level data rather than category totals | The classification test turns on surface area, volume and material per pack, so totals cannot answer it |
| Both sides of the household and commercial split | Commercial packaging has needed a system since 2023, so a household-only tool leaves half the catalogue manual |
| A route to an Austrian representative | A distance seller selling to households cannot register itself, so this is a legal gate rather than a convenience |
| Deposit containers handled separately | Deposit packaging leaves the system report and goes to EWP, so a tool that lumps all beverage packaging together reports it twice or not at all |
| An answer on glass | ARA's household approval excludes glass, so a jar or bottle catalogue may need a second Austrian counterparty |
| Somewhere for the PPWR paperwork | The EU Packaging Regulation applies from 12 August 2026 and adds a Declaration of Conformity on top of the Austrian duties |
The best Austrian EPR software ranked
Ranked on how much of Austria's packaging work each one genuinely carries.
1. Repax for one pack specification behind every Austrian answer
Repax starts from the object all of these rules point at, the pack itself. You specify each product once, down to components, materials and weights, and reports are generated from that record rather than rebuilt each deadline.
Austria makes that unusually valuable, because the household and commercial classification is decided on pack attributes, and the deposit rules then split one beverage multipack into two reporting destinations. Both are data questions before they are filing questions.
Repax is our own product, which is why it opens a list on our own blog, so the specifics below are the part worth checking.
Repax Core holds the product data and generates the reports, and Repax Declare produces the EU Declaration of Conformity that PPWR requires from 12 August 2026.
Try Repax Core for free - no card required Describe your products once and Core builds the report each market and scheme expects. Try it free
Presets then carry the fields a given market expects, so the same catalogue can answer an Austrian system report and a second market without being retyped.
What Core does not do is press submit, and it does not step into the representative role. Registrations, filings and the authorised representative are a separate product, Repax Comply, which confirms coverage country by country.
- Best for: producers who want one specification per pack feeding the Austrian classification, the system report and the PPWR paperwork.
- What it does for your Austrian duties: holds pack-level components, materials and weights, keeps recycled content per material, separates deposit-bearing containers from the packaging around them, generates the reports a system asks for, and produces the EU Declaration of Conformity through Declare.
- Whether it can be your Austrian representative: no, and it does not arrange one, so a distance seller still appoints a Bevollmächtigter separately.
- Markets and streams: multi-market and multi-stream, covering packaging, electronics and batteries in Austria.
- Pricing: Core and Declare both start at 0 EUR a month, with Core's paid tiers at 29 EUR and 59 EUR a month, excluding VAT (as of August 2026).
- Watch-out: Core does not submit and is not a representative. That is Comply, a separate membership with coverage confirmed country by country, so if the goal is to hand the Austrian filing over completely, compare it with the third and fourth entries.
2. ARA for contracting directly with Austria's largest system
ARA is the Austrian option in the strictest sense, an approved collection and recovery system rather than a platform bought from abroad. You sign a compliance and license agreement and they take on the producer obligations under the Packaging Ordinance.
Their commercial shape is unusual and genuinely relevant. ARA is member-owned, describes itself as the only Austrian collection and recovery scheme that has been non-profit from day one, and works to a stated true-cost principle where surpluses go back to customers.
Rates are calculated separately for the household and commercial schemes and per rate category, and the rate list is published for download.
Around the licensing there is a real service layer. They help build a weight calculation method for your catalogue, run process checks on how you classify packaging and establish volumes, and provide online data reporting.
ARA also licenses electronics and batteries, so several streams can sit with one counterparty.
- Best for: companies established in Austria that want the scheme relationship and its reporting portal, without adding a software layer.
- What it does for your Austrian duties: takes on the producer obligations under the Packaging Ordinance, licenses household and commercial packaging plus electronics and batteries, supports weight calculation and classification checks, and receives your reports.
- Whether it can be your Austrian representative: they are the Austrian system you contract with rather than a representative service, so a distance seller still needs the mandate handled.
- Markets and streams: Austria only, with packaging, electronics and batteries.
- Pricing: published tariffs by material and rate category, split between the household and commercial schemes, on a non-profit true-cost basis (as of August 2026).
- Watch-out: their household approval does not include glass, which sits with AGR, and no PPWR Declaration of Conformity tool is listed on their site.
3. Lizenzero for one account across Austria and thirty other markets
Lizenzero is Interzero's licensing service, and it answers the Austrian representative question directly.
They state that they act as your authorised representative, appoint representatives where necessary, report quantities and keep you posted on legal changes, across what they describe as 31 countries on one digital platform.
There is a structural point in their favour that is easy to miss.
Interzero Circular Solutions Europe is itself one of the six approved Austrian household systems and one of the five approved for commercial packaging, so this route puts you with an organisation approved in Austria in its own right rather than a broker in front of one.
The flow they publish runs from signing the contract through granting power of attorney and registration to country-specific reporting of volumes. A free obligation check tells you which countries you are caught in before you buy.
- Best for: cross-border sellers who want Austria handled inside one European packaging account rather than as a separate project.
- What it does for your Austrian duties: arranges the power of attorney, acts as or appoints the authorised representative, handles registration, and reports your packaging volumes per country.
- Whether it can be your Austrian representative: yes, this is a core part of what they sell.
- Markets and streams: 31 countries by their own count, packaging only.
- Pricing: published, at a 299 EUR service fee per country plus the volume-based fees the local schemes charge on top, with discounts of up to 15 percent as you add countries (as of August 2026).
- Watch-out: packaging is the whole scope, so electronics, batteries and textiles run through separate Interzero programmes, and pack-level product data stays your job.
4. Deutsche Recycling for putting the Austrian mandate entirely in someone else's name
Deutsche Recycling is a full-service compliance house rather than a software platform, and for Austria that is exactly the point.
They name the representative role as a service, saying they act as your legally required, notarised and registered representative in Austria, and manage your registration with the correct Austrian collection and recycling scheme.
Their menu carries the neighbouring roles too, including an international authorised representative service, EPR registration numbers, electronics registration and single-use plastics representation under the German fund law.
For a seller who has just discovered they cannot register in Austria themselves, that is the shortest path to being compliant.
The trade-off is visibility. There is no product to log into and no published price, so you are buying a service relationship and you get reporting when they produce it.
- Best for: foreign sellers who want the Austrian representative role, the registration and the reporting handled by one firm.
- What it does for your Austrian duties: acts as the registered Austrian representative, registers you with the right collection and recovery system, takes over the producer duties and handles the ongoing reporting.
- Whether it can be your Austrian representative: yes, and they describe it as notarised and registered.
- Markets and streams: Germany first with international representation, covering packaging, electronics, batteries, textiles and single-use plastics.
- Pricing: no public price, request-led (as of August 2026).
- Watch-out: no self-serve platform and no published rates, and their marketing makes broader claims about marketplace delisting that are theirs rather than ours, so get the scope in writing.
5. ecosistant for adding Austria cheaply to a long country list
ecosistant is the price floor here for a seller who needs many countries and not much hand-holding. Their country plan starts at 24.90 EUR per country excluding VAT, and a Europe-wide plan covers 30 countries, Austria among them.
The model splits in two. A premium service is fully outsourced and quoted case by case, while the self-service gives you digital manuals and a personalised to-do list and you carry out the steps.
They have also started selling a Declaration of Conformity service in three tiers, which puts them closer to the PPWR paperwork than a pure licensing shop.
For Austria there is one boundary to check before buying. Their self-service is described as being for B2C retailers, and Austria has required commercial packaging to join a system since 2023, so a B2B catalogue needs the conversation rather than the cheap plan.
- Best for: small and mid-sized cross-border sellers who want Austria plus many other markets at a published per-country price.
- What it does for your Austrian duties: identifies the obligations for the countries you ship to, gives step-by-step instructions to register and license, and offers a fully managed route on the premium tier.
- Whether it can be your Austrian representative: on the managed service they take the compliance work on, while the self-service leaves you to arrange the mandate, so confirm which applies before you buy.
- Markets and streams: 30 European countries, with packaging, electronics, batteries, textiles and furniture, and single-use plastics on premium only.
- Pricing: public, country plan from 24.90 EUR per country excluding VAT, Europe-wide plan from 399 EUR in the first year, premium by quote (as of August 2026).
- Watch-out: the self-service is written for B2C sellers, and instructions are not the same as someone doing it, so the cheap tier still leaves work with you.
6. Staxxer for sellers who owe Austrian VAT as well as packaging fees
Staxxer comes at Austria from the tax side. They are a Dutch cross-border e-commerce firm whose core is VAT registration and filing, with EPR sold as a done-for-you service alongside it, and Austria appears on both lists.
That pairing is the reason to consider them. A marketplace seller shipping into Austria usually has an Austrian VAT obligation and an Austrian packaging obligation arriving in the same month, and keeping them with one provider removes a handover.
Integrations with Amazon, Shopify and Bol.com feed the transaction side.
The scope is narrower than the roster above on the environmental side. Their own site names packaging, electronics and batteries under EPR, and nothing further.
- Best for: marketplace and webshop sellers who want Austrian VAT and Austrian EPR handled by the same provider.
- What it does for your Austrian duties: arranges the registrations and files the returns on your behalf, with the VAT and EPR work sitting in one relationship.
- Whether it can be your Austrian representative: they run the registration and filing as a done-for-you service, so ask directly whether they take the Bevollmächtigter mandate itself or arrange it.
- Markets and streams: nine EU countries priced for EPR including Austria, covering packaging, electronics and batteries.
- Pricing: public and priced per country, with Austria on the EPR list. We could not read their Austrian EPR line cleanly in August 2026, so treat the per-country figures as a posture to confirm on their pricing page.
- Watch-out: EPR is the smaller half of the business and the platform is built around VAT, so pack-level packaging data is not what it is for.
Match a provider to how you sell into Austria
The right answer depends less on your size than on where your company sits relative to the Austrian border.
- Established in Austria, selling to households. You can register and report yourself, so the question is only whether you want a system relationship (ARA) or a data platform behind it (Repax).
- Selling to Austrian households from abroad. The representative is mandatory, so start from Lizenzero or Deutsche Recycling, and remember a change only takes effect at a quarter end.
- Selling only to Austrian businesses. You still need a system contract, and the representative is optional, so a data-first setup with a direct system contract usually costs least.
- Selling into Austria and many other markets. Compare Lizenzero's per-country service against ecosistant's per-country price, then check which of them covers your other streams.
- Selling drinks in cans or plastic bottles. The deposit scheme takes those containers out of your system report, so a pack-level tool matters more than in most catalogues.
- Owing Austrian VAT too. Staxxer is the one here that treats both obligations as the same workflow.
Six providers compared on the jobs Austria gives you
A side-by-side recap of the ranking above.
| Provider | Best for | Austrian representative | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Repax | Pack-level data behind every Austrian answer | No | From 0 EUR a month, paid tiers 29 and 59 EUR |
| ARA | Contracting with Austria's largest system | No, they are the system | Published tariffs, non-profit basis |
| Lizenzero | Austria inside one European account | Yes | 299 EUR per country plus scheme fees |
| Deutsche Recycling | Handing the mandate over completely | Yes, notarised and registered | Request-led, no public price |
| ecosistant | Many countries at a published price | Managed tier only | From 24.90 EUR per country |
| Staxxer | Austrian VAT and EPR together | Ask, they run it as a service | Public, priced per country |
Frequently asked questions about Austrian EPR software
The questions Austrian packaging duties raise most often.
What is the best EPR software for Austria?
It depends on whether you can file in Austria yourself. We rank Repax first for holding the pack-level data every Austrian rule turns on, while a distance seller selling to households also needs an authorised representative, which Lizenzero or Deutsche Recycling provide.
Do I need an Austrian authorised representative?
If you sell packaged goods to Austrian households from outside Austria, yes. It has been mandatory for packaging placed on the market since 1 January 2023. Selling only to Austrian businesses from another EU country makes it optional instead.
Can I change my Austrian representative whenever I want?
No. Appointing, changing or ending a mandate only takes effect at the end of a calendar quarter, and you may hold one representative at a time. If a mandate lapses mid-quarter you must ensure a new one continues the duties without a gap.
Do deposit bottles still need a packaging licence in Austria?
No, and this catches people out. Containers in the deposit scheme are exempt from needing a compliance agreement with a collection and recovery system, so you report them to EWP instead. The secondary packaging around them still goes in your system report.
When is the Austrian packaging report due?
By 15 March for the previous calendar year, covering household and commercial packaging, with reusable packaging by 30 March. How often you report in between depends on your expected annual fee, moving from annual to quarterly above 1,500 EUR and monthly above 20,000 EUR.
Is there free EPR software for Austria?
Partly. Repax Core and Declare both have a 0 EUR tier, and ecosistant publishes a permanently free German plan, though the Austrian scheme fees themselves are never free. Every route still ends in paying a system for the packaging you place.
Does Austria require a system contract for B2B packaging?
Yes. Commercial packaging has required participation in an approved collection and recovery system since 1 January 2023, which surprises sellers used to countries where only household packaging is covered.
