Germany
How registration works in Germany
Start with the appointment, not the portal. Under single-use plastics EPR in Germany, any producer without a German establishment must appoint an authorised representative before starting activity, in writing, in German, one per producer.
Registration itself happens on DIVID before your first product is made available, because the law bans placing listed products without it. The platform opened to foreign manufacturers on 1 August 2024, with their registration deadline set at 31 December 2024.
Within EPR in Germany, this is the stream where a foreign seller cannot even start without a German appointment in place, and the UBA is notified of who represents whom.
Who the single-use plastics rules cover in Germany
The law reaches you if any line below fits:
- You are the first to make an Anlage 1 product, cups, lightweight bags or tobacco filters among them, available on the German market.
- You sell those products into Germany from abroad, which adds the mandatory representative before anything else.
- You place under 100 kilograms a year. You stay registered and levied, and only the expert check on your report is waived.
- You sell fireworks, the next product type to be brought into the fund.
What and when you report in Germany
Once registered you report once a year, by 15 May, the mass in kilograms of each product type you first made available in Germany the previous year. The report needs certification by a registered expert with a qualified electronic signature.
Then the state does the maths. The levy arrives as a Festsetzungsbescheid, an official assessment notice, and payment is due one month after you receive it. The first levy year was 2024, first billed in 2025.
The small-volume carve-out is narrow. Below 100 kilograms a year, or if you sell only deposit-covered bottles, the expert certification is waived, nothing else.
What single-use plastics EPR costs in Germany
The cost has one real layer instead of the usual three. There is no separate registration fee to point to, registration simply runs through DIVID, and there is no eco-modulation bending the price.
What remains is the levy itself, fixed per kilogram by regulation: 1.236 euros for cups, 3.801 euros for lightweight bags and 8.972 euros for tobacco filters. The money fills the central fund at the UBA and is paid out to the municipalities that clean up.
DIVID is not a scheme you negotiate with. The rates sit in a regulation and the bill arrives as an official notice, so budgeting is arithmetic, not membership shopping.
Enforcement in Germany
Fines under § 26 EWKFondsG reach 100,000 euros for registration violations, unregistered sales and marketplace or fulfilment breaches, with 10,000 euros for the rest.
That is stricter than batteries in Germany, where the statutory gate stops at the warehouse and platform checks are only policy. For single-use plastics, both the listing and the logistics die together.
The dates ahead for single-use plastics in Germany
Fireworks are the next stream to join the fund, and the timeline beside this page sets out the three dates that matter.
The EU layer adds product deadlines of its own. Plastic beverage bottles must contain 30 percent recycled content by 2030, and separate collection must reach 90 percent by 2029.
Frequently asked questions about single-use plastics EPR in Germany
The questions producers put to the German fund.
What does single-use plastics EPR mean in Germany?
A litter-cost levy rather than a recycling scheme. You register on the DIVID platform, report the mass of listed products you place, and pay a per-kilogram levy into a central fund run by the UBA, which pays municipalities for cleaning up.
Who has to register for single-use plastics EPR in Germany?
Anyone first making Anlage 1 single-use plastic products available on the German market, before starting that activity. Producers without a German establishment must appoint an authorised representative first.
How much does single-use plastics EPR cost in Germany?
The levy is the cost, and it is set per kilogram by regulation: 1.236 euros for cups, 3.801 euros for lightweight bags and 8.972 euros for tobacco filters. There is no separate registration fee to budget for.
When are single-use plastics reports due in Germany?
Annually by 15 May, certified by a registered expert unless you stay under 100 kilograms a year or sell only deposit-covered bottles. The levy itself is due one month after the assessment notice arrives.
Do marketplaces check single-use plastics registration in Germany?
Yes, and by law rather than policy. Marketplaces may not allow offers of unregistered producers' listed products, and fulfilment providers may not store or ship for them.
