If you sell online, through your own webshop, a marketplace like Amazon or eBay, or all at once, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) applies to you the same as to any high-street shop. This guide covers EPR for ecommerce sellers, a plain way to manage it as an online seller across every market you sell in.
Online selling adds two twists. It is cross-border by default, so one webshop can owe a separate registration, report and fee in a dozen countries. And marketplaces now police it, checking you are registered before they let you list and pulling your listings if you are not.
Before you start
You can skip this if you already sell in one country and know exactly what your products are made of. Most online sellers do not, so gather three things first.
- Your channels and countries. Every sales channel and the countries each one ships to. An online sale into a country counts as placing products on that market there, not where you are based.
- Your product and packaging data. What each item and its packaging is made of, and what it weighs. Every scheme reports and bills on weight and material.
- Your company details. Legal name, address and VAT number, which every national register asks for.
The hard part is usually pulling the numbers together. A marketplace only shows what sold through it, so no single dashboard gives you your full volume. Start by getting that whole picture in front of you.
How the job breaks down
Managing EPR online is a cycle you set up once and then keep running, not a one-off. It comes in three phases, and the rest of this guide takes them in turn.
You map your footprint (what you sell and where), then register before you list (each country's register, a representative if you need one, and your numbers given to every marketplace), then keep reporting and stay listed (volumes filed, fees paid, registrations kept current).
Phase 1. Map your online footprint
Everything else depends on knowing what you sell, where it goes, and which rules it triggers. Two lists give you that.
Step 1. List every channel and country you sell into
Write down each sales channel (your own webshop, Amazon, eBay, Etsy and any others) and the countries each one ships to.
Treat every destination country as its own market. Under EU rules an online sale into a country places the product on that market there, and the duty follows the buyer, not you. Germany's electricals law spells this out. A distance seller shipping in counts as a producer there, even with no office in the country.
You are done when you have one combined list of every country a buyer can receive your goods in, across all your channels.
Step 2. Map your products to their waste streams
A waste stream is the category the rules sort a product into, and it decides which scheme you join and what you report. For an online order, look at both the product and the box it ships in.
The parcel, the void fill and the tape are all packaging. If you sell electricals they are electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), and anything with a cell is batteries. Textiles is being added across the EU. One order can carry several streams at once. A phone case in a padded mailer is packaging, and if it ships with a battery, batteries too.
You are done when every product is mapped to its stream or streams, and you have not forgotten the shipping packaging every online order generates.
Phase 2. Register before you can list
This is where online selling differs most from a shop on the high street. In several countries you cannot legally list until you are registered, and the marketplace does the checking.
Step 3. Register in each country for each stream
Every country runs its own producer register, and in most of them registration has to happen before your first sale, not after.
In Germany, packaging goes in a register called LUCID, run by the Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister, while electricals and batteries go through a body called stiftung ear. In France you apply to the environment agency ADEME for a unique identifier (an identifiant unique, or IDU), one per stream.
You register per stream, per country, so a seller shipping packaged electronics into three countries can easily need six or more separate registrations. The country guides show what each market expects.
You are done when you hold a valid registration, and any number the country issues, for every stream in every country you ship to, dated before you sell there.
Step 4. Appoint an authorised representative if you sell from outside the EU
If your company is not established in a country you sell into, that country may require you to appoint an authorised representative based there to carry your EPR duties.
This catches a lot of online sellers, because shipping across a border does not make you established anywhere new. Germany already refuses to let a foreign company register itself for electricals or batteries; it has to act through a representative in the country.
From 12 August 2026, when the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) takes effect, the same requirement reaches packaging, and a producer not established in a market must appoint a representative there.
You are done when, for each country where you are a foreign seller, you have either confirmed no representative is needed or appointed one.
Step 5. Give your registration numbers to every marketplace
Marketplaces are now legally required to check you before they let you sell.
In Germany, since 1 July 2022 a marketplace may not let you offer packaging unless you are registered in LUCID, and since 2023 the same applies to electricals through stiftung ear. In France, since 1 January 2022 a marketplace has to collect your unique identifier, and it can be held liable in your place, and refuse to list you, if you have not supplied one.
So each marketplace has a field where you enter your registration numbers per country and stream. Amazon states it plainly. If you do not, it "may need to deactivate your non-compliant listings, or comply with regulations on your behalf" and bill you for it.
You are done when every marketplace you sell on holds your current registration numbers for every country you ship to through it, and none of your listings are flagged.
Phase 3. Keep reporting and stay listed
Registration is the setup. The ongoing job is reporting what you sold, paying for it, and keeping every registration current so nothing gets switched off.
Step 6. Report your volumes and pay your fees
You report the quantities you place on each market, usually by weight and material, to the producer responsibility organisation (a PRO) you joined for each stream.
For an online seller the catch is that your volume is split across channels, so you add up what sold through your webshop and every marketplace, per country, before you report. Fees follow, and under EU rules they are eco-modulated, so packaging that is easy to recycle costs less than packaging that is hard to recycle.
Reporting is periodic, often yearly, and an expired registration is exactly what makes a marketplace pull your listings, so keep every number current.
You are done, for this cycle, when you have filed and paid in every market, and have a calendar note for the next deadline in each one.
The one thing online sellers get wrong
The big mistake is assuming the marketplace takes care of EPR for you. It does not. A platform is only required to check that you are registered, not to register, report or pay on your behalf.
When Amazon does step in with its "comply on your behalf" option, it bills you the fees plus a service fee, so it costs more than doing it yourself. And on your own webshop there is no marketplace at all, so the whole duty is yours.
How Repax handles the multi-channel work
Managing EPR online is really two jobs stuck together, and by hand each one eats time:
- Knowing what you sold, by material and weight, across every channel and country. By hand this is a spreadsheet that never quite reconciles across marketplaces.
- Filing and paying in each market, and keeping every number valid. By hand this is a separate login, form and deadline for every country and stream.
Repax is built around that split:
- Repax Core takes the first job. Spec each product once, and Core turns it into the report each scheme asks for, so your cross-channel volume is arithmetic, not guesswork. It is live now.
- Repax Comply takes the filing across markets. It is on the way, with a waitlist open.
- Repax Declare covers the EU Declaration of Conformity if your packaging needs one under the PPWR.
Repax does not make you compliant on its own. It does the data work and the filing work that otherwise owns your calendar.
Pricing is public: a free tier at €0 a month, paid plans from €29 a month, and a custom tier for high volume (as of July 2026). Still choosing a tool? Our best EPR software for ecommerce sellers rundown compares the main options, Repax included.
Common questions about managing EPR as an online seller
Short, self-contained answers to the questions online sellers ask most.
How long does it take to get EPR under control as an online seller?
It depends on how many countries and streams you sell into, because each registration is separate. One country and one stream can be quick once your product data is ready, while a cross-border catalogue across several marketplaces takes longer. The slow part is almost always pulling your sales and product data together, not the sign-ups.
Does my marketplace handle EPR for me?
No. Marketplaces like Amazon are required to check that you are registered, and they will block or remove listings that are not. That is the platform verifying your compliance, not doing it for you. On your own webshop there is no marketplace involved at all, so the duty is entirely yours.
Do I need to register in every country I ship to?
Yes, wherever you place products on the market, which online means wherever your buyers are. EPR is run country by country, so you register, report and pay separately in each one. There is no single EU-wide sign-up.
I sell from outside the EU. What changes?
You still carry the same duties, and most countries will require you to appoint an authorised representative established there to hold them. Germany already requires this for electronics and batteries, and from 12 August 2026 the PPWR extends it to packaging.
What happens if I ignore it?
Two things. Marketplaces pull or block your listings, which stops your sales directly. And national authorities can fine you. In Germany, placing packaging on the market without registering can bring fines of up to €200,000.
