Extended producer responsibility

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in the EU - Petition from Ebay

"One of our main goals at eBay is to support and promote small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that want to expand their business by opening up new markets in the EU and worldwide. However, legislation sometimes creates barriers to international trade. A new EU Waste Framework Directive is currently in preparation, which would require small and medium-sized enterprises to undergo a variety of complex registration procedures before selling in the EU. These new rules are also known as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)." (from the Ebay petition)

The background to this is that a new version of the Waste Framework Directive is currently being discussed at EU level.

Each EU member state has its own EPR rules. Retailers must register for certain product categories in the respective national register. The rules vary from market to market (country to country) and can differ considerably. France, for example, sees itself as a pioneer for sustainability in fashion. The destruction of unsold products is prohibited there.

In Germany, for example, it is already mandatory to register packaging waste with LUCID, and the sale of electrical appliances also requires registration. Without a WEEE registration number, sales via EBAY or Amazon are also not possible.

What will change in concrete terms?

The registration obligations must already be observed by dealers for sales in the respective markets.

The European Commission is planning to amend the directive on EU waste legislation so that the current rules on extended product responsibility apply to all supplier countries. In future, the sales platform must check the seller's registration under waste legislation before a sale to another EU country is permitted.

A seller must then prove for the respective EU delivery country that waste disposal, e.g. for shipping packaging, is guaranteed in the respective EU country. In the case of EU-wide shipping, this would therefore be a notification and registration in all 27 EU countries.

What does the petition say?

The EU's aim is to make sales within the EU as smooth and attractive as possible. Incidentally, this was also the intention of the Geo-blocking Regulation (EU) 2018/302, which was intended to eliminate unjustified discrimination against consumers and strengthen the internal market. Currently, many stores would shy away from internationalization.
Ebay therefore has three central demands.

• Establishment of a single point of contact in the EU for compliance with the legal framework for waste management.
• Introduction of exemptions for micro-enterprises and/or de minimis rules for certain product sales volumes.
• Permission for online marketplaces to support their sellers by clarifying that they are not "producers"

Ebay intends to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that want to expand their business by opening up new markets in the EU and worldwide. At the same time, Ebay sees itself as having a responsibility for sustainability by contributing to reducing waste through this petition.