How to register for EPR in France in 2026

By the end of this guide your company will hold every registration France requires under extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging, electronics and batteries, each with its own identifier, whether you are established in France or sell into it from abroad.

How do I register for EPR in France?

France has one EPR register for all three streams, packaging, electronics and batteries, and your éco-organisme makes each entry for you.

• Packaging, electronics and batteries are all recorded in SYDEREP, the register run by ADEME, the French agency for ecological transition. Each stream you sell into gets its own identifier.

• The entry is made by your éco-organisme, the French name for a producer responsibility organisation (PRO), once you join it. A company with no French establishment joins through a French authorised representative, called a mandataire.

Each membership belongs in place before the first product is sold in France, and for batteries the law requires it.

Every one ends in an IDU (identifiant unique), the number you print in your terms of sale and on your website. The six steps below take the memberships in the order their waiting times set.

What to gather first

Before you contact any éco-organisme, gather these five company details and documents.

1. Your company identifiers

   A French company gives its SIRET number and NAF code, an EU company its intra-EU VAT number, and a company outside the EU a VAT number or its home tax registration number.

2. A full postal address, phone number and website

   ADEME lists all three among the details your éco-organisme needs.

3. A product list sorted by stream

   Count the batteries built into your devices as batteries.

4. An estimate of what you will place on the market this year

   ecosystem, for one, invoices its fee in advance from it.

5. A mandate for a French mandataire

   A written mandate for a French mandataire, if you have no French establishment.

The one question that decides your whole route

From abroad, you need a French mandataire. Since July 2026 French law makes a company from abroad appoint one to carry its EPR duties.

One register and a separate number for every stream

EPR registration is national everywhere in the EU, and how to register for EPR in Europe sets out that frame. France then runs it through one register and a network of éco-organismes.

Across EPR in France there are more than a dozen streams with producer duties, and a webshop selling a packaged device with a battery inside touches three of them.

What catches producers is not the number of streams but that none of the entries is theirs to make. ADEME puts it plainly on its page about the unique identifier: in a collective system, you cannot register individually.

From abroad, your mandataire joins each of France's core registrations for you.

Below are France's core registrations side by side, with the timings the éco-organismes published in September 2026.

Two rules changed in 2026. Since 10 July 2026 a company not established in France must appoint a French mandataire by written mandate, and the mandataire takes over the EPR duties it accepts. Some older official pages still describe it as optional.

Professional packaging is the other. The ministry moved its operational start to 1 January 2027, and ADEME asks producers to join an éco-organisme for it before 31 December 2026.

A 6-step guide to EPR registration in France

This guide takes you from the first check, whether France counts you as the producer, to holding every IDU you need. The steps run in the order the waiting times set, and each one ends with what you should have in hand before you move on.

Step 1. Confirm France counts you as the producer

French law points at whoever first places a product on the French market, stream by stream, with no volume threshold. Citeo puts it as from the very first package.

You are the producer if you are established in France and sell packaged products there for the first time, or established anywhere else and ship them directly to French end users. For packaging that follows the EU definition in the PPWR, which applies directly since 12 August 2026.

For electronics and batteries the French code names distance sellers from abroad outright, and a battery inside your device counts as a battery you place.

You are done when every product line has a yes or no against each stream. A packaged laptop with a lithium cell is three yeses.

Step 2. Work out which filières you owe

France calls each stream a filière, and each yes means one membership and one IDU. All of them sit in SYDEREP.

Household packaging goes to Citeo, Adelphe or Léko, and professional packaging to Citeo Pro, Léko Pro or Twiice, as a separate filière with its own IDU. Electronics go to ecosystem or Ecologic, or Soren for solar panels.

Batteries are a filière of their own. Batribox and ecosystem take all five battery categories, and an electronics membership does not cover the cells inside the devices.

You are done with the list of filières you owe. The laptop owes three IDUs. Any other stream you sell into is in the table further down this page.

Step 3. Decide who signs each membership

Established in France. You join each éco-organisme in your own name and need no mandataire.

Selling from abroad. Your mandataire comes first. It signs up with each éco-organisme on your behalf and carries the duties it accepts, while the éco-organisme makes the SYDEREP entry in every case.

You are done when each membership has a signature against it, yours or your mandataire's. If you are still choosing one, how to appoint an EPR authorised representative walks the appointment.

Step 4. Gather what each éco-organisme asks for

Every éco-organisme asks for the company details from the list above, and each adds its own.

1. The packaging schemes ask which categories you place, and Citeo's sign-up asks whether you are joining as a producer or as a mandataire acting for one.

2. The electronics schemes ask for your product families and a first declaration. Ecologic also wants named contacts for declarations and accounting.

3. For batteries, have your brands, the category of each battery and its chemistry ready, the data the EU Battery Regulation lists for every registration.

You are done when each sign-up form can be completed in one sitting.

Step 5. Join in the order the waiting times set

The memberships do not move at the same speed (the table near the top has each one), so start with the slow ones.

1. Appoint the mandataire if you need one. Every membership after it runs through that mandate.

2. Join the electronics scheme first. ecosystem issues the IDU only after your first declaration and advance payment.

3. Join a battery scheme before the first battery is sold, which the EU Battery Regulation makes a condition of selling.

4. Join a household packaging scheme. Citeo and Léko send the IDU a few days after you join.

5. Join a professional packaging scheme before 31 December 2026 if you ship to business buyers.

You are done with one IDU per filière, each issued by ADEME and passed to you by your éco-organisme.

Step 6. Do what each IDU makes due next

Each IDU starts its own reporting rhythm, set by the éco-organisme rather than by statute.

1. Show every IDU. Print it in your terms of sale, or in another contract document if you have none, and on your website.

2. Packaging. Declare last year's packaging each January or February to Citeo or Adelphe, pay the éco-contribution, and put the Triman logo on household packaging.

3. Electronics. Declare yearly or quarterly at ecosystem, or every six months at Ecologic, and mark household devices with the crossed-out bin.

4. Batteries. Declare once a year and mark every battery with the crossed-out bin.

Your éco-organisme passes your figures on to ADEME, so you never file a SYDEREP report yourself. How to do EPR reporting covers the declarations in detail.

The other streams France regulates

Beyond packaging, electronics and batteries, France runs producer duties for 13 more streams, all recorded in SYDEREP.

Below is the éco-organisme each one runs through, so you can rule them in or out in one pass.

One product record behind every French declaration

There are two ways through the work above, and both rest on the same product data.

Run the filings yourself

Every step above is data work before it is filing work. The packaging split by material, the equipment by product family, the batteries by brand, category and chemistry, and then the same figures again in the shape each éco-organisme wants them declared.

Repax Core holds one structured record per product, broken down to its materials and components, takes your sales data in through integrations or order imports, and builds the per-scheme cut from it.

The January packaging declaration, the electronics figures and the battery masses come out of the same record.

Or hand the filings over

If you would rather not run them yourself, Repax Comply is the managed route, linked at the top of this guide.

Producers register and report through Repax market by market, with an authorised representative appointed where the country requires one, which France does for every company without a French establishment.

One honest edge survives that, and it is a French one. The SYDEREP entry is always made by the éco-organisme, so whoever you work with, your registrations in France run through those memberships.

For the tools that hold French scheme data side by side today, the best French EPR software in 2026 ranks them.

6 common mistakes when registering for EPR in France

Below are the six mistakes producers make most often when they register in France.

1. Registering in SYDEREP yourself

   Trying to open a SYDEREP account for your own company. In a collective system the éco-organisme makes the entry and passes you the IDU. Only a producer running a ministry-approved individual system deals with ADEME directly.

2. One membership for device and battery

   Treating an electronics membership as cover for the batteries inside the devices. They are two filières with two IDUs, even when ecosystem runs both.

3. Working from the old mandataire rule

   Relying on guidance from before July 2026. Article L541-10-9-1 of the environment code now makes a French mandataire mandatory for every company not established in France.

4. Forgetting professional packaging

   Covering household packaging and stopping there. Packaging that ends up with businesses rather than households is a separate filière, with an operational start on 1 January 2027 and membership due before it.

5. Leaving the IDU off your terms

   Holding the IDU but not printing it. It belongs in your terms of sale and on your website, and a missing IDU carries its own fine of up to 30,000 euros.

6. Waiting for a threshold

   Assuming small volumes are exempt. No French registration rule has a minimum, so the first package, device or battery sold in France is enough.

Frequently asked questions about registering for EPR in France

Below are the five questions producers ask most often about registering for EPR in France.

How long does this take?

Packaging IDUs usually arrive a few days after you join Citeo or Léko. ecosystem issues the electronics IDU after your first declaration and advance payment. Appointing a mandataire from abroad comes first, so start with that and the electronics membership.

Do I need a company or an address in France?

No, but without an establishment in France you must appoint a French mandataire by written mandate. It signs up with the éco-organismes for you and takes over the EPR duties it accepts, while each éco-organisme makes your SYDEREP entry.

Can a marketplace cover my French EPR?

Partly. A marketplace carries its sellers' EPR unless they prove they comply, and an IDU counts as that proof. Where a marketplace established in France fulfils the duties for a product, your mandataire duty for that product counts as met.

Can Repax register for me?

Yes, through Repax Comply, which runs registrations with an authorised representative where the country requires one, as France does for companies based abroad. The SYDEREP entry itself is always made by your éco-organisme, so Comply works through those memberships.

What happens if I sell in France without registering?

The ministry can fine up to 7,500 euros per unit or tonne, add up to 30,000 euros for not being registered or not showing your IDU, and charge up to 20,000 euros a day until you comply.