Yes. Etsy collects EPR registration numbers from sellers directly, and it has a field for them in Shop Manager. What catches people out is that Etsy does not ask for one number.
It asks per country, and inside each country it asks per product category. So the useful question is not whether you need a number. It is how many you need, and which register issues each one.
What you need before you can fill in Etsy's EPR fields
Etsy's EPR section will not take a guess, and every register behind it wants the same four things.
- The countries your shop actually sells to. Not the countries you advertise in. Anywhere an order has shipped counts, because the duty attaches to the country your buyer is in.
- What your products are and what is inside them. A cotton tote, a candle in a carton and a battery-powered lamp fall into different categories, and each is registered separately.
- Your packaging weights, split by material. The carton, the tissue, the tape and the mailer are all packaging you put on the market, whatever is inside them.
- Your company details exactly as registered. Legal name, registered address and VAT number as they appear on your company registration, not as they appear in your shop footer.
If the country list is longer than you expected, that is the useful part of the exercise.
Why one shop can owe nine registrations
Etsy runs a separate EPR section for each country it publishes rules for, and it currently publishes three. Those three are Germany, France and Spain.
That is a fact about Etsy's help centre rather than a fact about your duties, and the difference is worth being clear about.
- What it means. In Germany, France and Spain, Etsy is the one that asks you for a number, and it gives you a field to put it in.
- What it does not mean. That these are the only countries where you owe a registration. Ship to Italy or Poland and the duty still applies, you just have to go and find that register yourself rather than wait for Etsy to raise it.
Inside each of the three, Etsy then decides nothing at all. The country decides which product categories carry a producer duty, and each category has its own register issuing its own number.
That is why the count is countries multiplied by categories, and not one number for your shop.
A shop selling one battery-powered lamp into all three countries meets three of Etsy's named categories in each, because the lamp is electrical equipment, the battery is a battery, and the box is packaging. That is nine registrations for one product. A cotton tote adds a tenth in France.
| Country | Etsy's categories | Registers |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 3 | LUCID, stiftung EAR |
| France | 8 | ADEME on SYDEREP |
| Spain | 3 | MITECO, RII-AEE, RII-PYA |
Germany and Spain both name packaging, electrical and electronic equipment, and batteries. France names those three and then adds furniture, textiles, toys, sports and leisure goods, and DIY and gardening products.
France is also the one that says its published list is not the full one, which makes a French obligation the easiest of the three to miss.
How to get registered and give Etsy the number
The work is one loop you finish for a single country before starting the next. Country by country rather than category by category is what stops you registering for packaging in three places and forgetting batteries in all of them.
Step 1. List the countries your shop sells into
Open your Etsy order history for the last full calendar year and write out every country an order has shipped to. Set that against the countries Etsy publishes EPR rules for, which today are Germany, France and Spain.
A country you have shipped to is a country where you have already put packaging on the market. Under Article 44(2) of the EU packaging regulation the duty lands in each member state where you make packaging available for the first time, so the shipment is the trigger, not the listing.
For the countries Etsy does not cover, our directory of national EPR registers is where to start looking.
Step 2. Work out which categories those countries put you in
Take one country and run your products against that country's categories in the table above. Every category you touch becomes its own registration.
This is where the three genuinely differ. The same tote bag is packaging only in Germany and Spain, and packaging plus textiles in France. Work from the country's list, not from your own sense of what your shop sells.
Step 3. Appoint an authorised representative where you are not established
If your company is not established in the country you are registering in, you may need someone there to carry the duty with you. Etsy states this for Germany and for Spain, and Article 45(3) requires the appointment by written mandate for the producers it covers.
Do it before you register. In several countries the representative is the party that makes the registration, so appointing one late means starting again. Our guide to appointing an EU authorised representative covers what the mandate has to say.
Step 4. Register with each register and collect the numbers
Work down your country and category grid one cell at a time, because each cell is its own application. Germany splits packaging from equipment and batteries across two bodies, France runs every category through ADEME, and Spain uses three separate registers.
Registering is also where you join a scheme, the organisation that does the actual collecting and recycling. Etsy calls this a Dual System in Germany, and in France adhering to a producer responsibility organisation or setting up an equivalent individual system.
Give this real time. Article 44(11) allows the authority up to twelve weeks to grant a registration and issue the number once you have supplied everything asked for, so a registration started in December is not reliably a number you hold in January.
Step 5. Add every number in Shop Manager
Etsy keeps the fields in the same place for all three countries, and publishes the path in its own help centre. Go to Shop Manager, then Finances, then Legal and tax information, then Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Registrations, and select Add info under the country you are filling in.
Enter the number the register issued. That is not your scheme membership reference or your PRO contract number, and entering the wrong one is the most common reason a number fails a check later.
Step 6. Show buyers the recycling information and keep the numbers current
All three countries also ask you to tell buyers how to return and recycle what you sold them. Etsy suggests your shop policies, your Message to Buyers or your terms, and notes that labelling, marking and take-back rules can apply on top.
France goes one step further. Electrical equipment and certain chemical products there also need a way for the buyer to send the item back.
Then keep it alive. Article 44(12) requires you to tell the register about any change without undue delay, and a new product line can add a category you were never registered for. Nothing in Shop Manager will tell you when that happens.
Where Repax fits for an Etsy seller
Step 4 is where this stops being form filling. Every register wants the weight of each packaging material you placed on its market over its own reporting year, grouped its own way, and that calculation returns every year for every country you registered in.
Repax Core is built for that part. It reads your product and order data, holds materials and weights once so a change updates every product built from them, and produces the figures each market asks for from one dataset. Each shipped order locks in the specification that was current at the time, so a filing can be reproduced years later.
Explore Repax Core See how product and order data turns into the figures each register asks forCore prepares the data behind a filing. It does not submit to a register, it does not obtain your registration number, and it does not type anything into Shop Manager. Repax Comply will cover the filing itself and is not live yet.
What actually stops you selling
Etsy does not publish what it does when a number is missing, so the honest answer comes from the regulation rather than the platform. These are the five wrong readings that cost sellers most.
- Thinking the listing is the trigger. Article 44(4) says you must not make packaging available in a member state at all if you are not registered there. An unregistered year is a year you have to account for afterwards.
- Thinking the marketplace can register for you. Article 45(4) lets a platform meet the obligations in paragraph 2 of that article under written mandate, and paragraph 2 is the costs. The registration stays personally yours.
- Assuming you are too small. Under ten tonnes of packaging a year gets you a reduced reporting set under Article 44(8), not an exemption from registering, and a member state may set that threshold lower.
- Registering once and treating Europe as covered. A German LUCID number does nothing for a French or Spanish order. Registration is national, and category by category inside each country.
- Entering the scheme reference instead of the register number. They come from different organisations, and only one is what the marketplace has to verify.
Frequently asked questions about EPR numbers for Etsy
Short answers to what Etsy sellers ask most often.
How long does it take to get an EPR number?
Article 44(11) gives the authority up to twelve weeks to grant a registration and issue your number, counted from when you have provided everything it asked for. Some registers are much faster, but plan for the full window.
Does Etsy register on your behalf?
No. Etsy collects the number and gives you a field for it, but every number comes from a national register and you apply directly. A platform can take on the costs under a written mandate, never the registration itself.
Am I too small to need a registration?
Probably not. Under ten tonnes of packaging a year means a reduced reporting set rather than an exemption, and countries can set that threshold lower. France also names more product categories than Germany or Spain.
Do I need a separate number for every country?
Yes, and usually more than one per country. Registration is national and runs per product category, so a shop selling one electrical item into three countries can be looking at nine separate registrations.
What happens if the number I entered is wrong?
Under Article 45(6) the platform has to make best efforts to check that what you gave it is complete and reliable, and countries may reconcile it against the national register automatically. A wrong number is treated as a missing one.
