EPR Registration Cost: Fees in Germany, France and the UK

Registering for EPR can be cheap or even free. The bigger cost is usually the yearly fee you pay a scheme for your packaging, electricals or batteries. In Germany, LUCID packaging registration is free, while stiftung ear charges €9.50 per equipment type to register electricals plus €32.80 a quarter. France’s Citeo charges a flat €110 a year for household packaging below 10,000 units.

Those figures were checked on the registers’ and schemes’ own pages in October 2026 and are net of VAT. They change, so treat them as a guide to how the costs work rather than a quote.

Registration fees and licence fees are two different bills

EPR cost is easier to follow as three separate payments:

Register fees. What the national register charges to record you as a producer. Sometimes nothing, sometimes a fee: a few euros at stiftung ear, but £2,842 for a large UK producer registering directly.
Scheme or licence fees. What a compliance scheme (a dual system in Germany, an éco-organisme in France) charges to take on the recycling of what you sell. It depends on weight, material or units, so it grows with what you sell.
Representative or service fees. What a private provider charges to act for you or do the filing. These are set by each provider, not by law.

In Germany, paying one does not cover the others: a LUCID number with no scheme contract still leaves your packaging unlicensed, and a scheme contract does not register you. In France, joining an éco-organisme includes your registration. If you would rather not work through this alone, see what our EPR registration service for Amazon sellers covers. Whoever helps you, the LUCID registration itself has to be made in your own name.

Why Amazon sellers face these costs

Amazon asks sellers for EPR numbers: the LUCID number for German packaging and a unique identifier (IDU) for each French category. It may deactivate offers that are not compliant, and the seller stays legally responsible. In Germany, marketplaces and fulfilment providers must also regularly check that their partners meet their obligations under German packaging law.

What EPR costs in Germany

Packaging: LUCID plus a dual system licence

The Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister states that registration, data reporting and related activities in LUCID are free of charge for producers. You still pay participation fees to the system you choose, for the recovery and recycling of your packaging. Those fees are set by each system and depend on the packaging volumes you report, so there is no single published rate.

A foreign producer can appoint an authorised representative for its packaging duties, but not for the LUCID registration itself. The register says handing registration to a third party is prohibited under section 35(1) of the Packaging Act, so you register in your own name.

Electricals (WEEE): stiftung ear fees plus a representative

A company with no German branch cannot register electrical goods itself. It needs an authorised representative located in Germany, appointed in writing, in German, signed by both sides, for at least three months. Stiftung ear then charges these administrative fees (net of VAT, under the ElektroGBattGGebV fee regulation):

Fee	Amount	How often
Registration	€9.50 per equipment type (per represented company when a representative registers)	One-off
Authorised representative confirmation	€50.60 per represented company	One-off
Quarterly fee	€32.80	Every quarter
Guarantee check (any guarantee form)	€3.80 per equipment type	Yearly
Individual guarantee check	€156.90	One-off (stiftung ear lists it with the one-time fees)

Products for private households (b2c) also need an insolvency-safe guarantee, checked at registration and every year after. You either join a collective guarantee system, which charges for it, or arrange an individual one, such as a bank suretyship (banks usually charge for it) or a deposit with a German court (usually free). The representative’s own fee comes on top and is set privately.

Batteries

Stiftung ear lists a battery registration fee of €16.40 per battery type and a quarterly fee of €3.80, again net of VAT. The fee page lists register fees only, not what a take-back scheme charges.

What EPR costs in France

In France, producers are registered in ADEME’s SYDEREP register and receive an IDU. If you join an éco-organisme, it enters your details in SYDEREP for you, so the scheme membership is the cost that matters. For household packaging, Citeo’s 2026 tariff guide (updated 22 June 2026) works on three levels:

Under 10,000 sales units a year: a flat €110 excluding VAT. Citeo counts a product’s own packaging and its shipping carton as separate units.
10,000 to 500,000 units: you can use a simplified declaration, priced per unit by product family.
Over 500,000 units: priced per unit from the weight and material of its packaging. For example, 25.81 cents per kg for paper and cardboard, and 70.00 cents per kg for clear PET bottles, adjusted up or down by eco-modulation.

Citeo’s guide says membership includes allocation of your IDU. Other French categories, such as electricals, furniture or textiles, each need their own IDU and membership of an éco-organisme for that category, at its own tariff. Amazon expects a number for every category you sell.

What packaging EPR costs in the UK

UK packaging EPR only applies to businesses established in the UK with a worldwide turnover of £1 million or more that supplied over 25 tonnes of packaging in the previous year. A business with its head office abroad still counts as established in the UK if it has a UK branch, warehouse, PO box, returns address or other UK postal address. Large producers (over £2 million turnover and over 50 tonnes) registering for 2027 pay a registration fee of £2,842 directly to their regulator, or £1,803 through a compliance scheme, plus that scheme’s own fees. Large producers also pay waste disposal fees, which a scheme cannot pay on their behalf. If you sell into the UK from abroad with no UK address, note that gov.uk lists owning an online marketplace through which packaging is supplied into the UK from outside the UK as a producer activity of the marketplace owner.

Who you pay, for what and how often

Market and category	Register	Register fee	Scheme or licence fee	Representative
Germany, packaging	LUCID	Free	Set by the dual system on the packaging volumes you report	Optional for packaging duties; cannot register for you
Germany, electricals	stiftung ear	€9.50 per type once, then €32.80 a quarter	Insolvency-safe guarantee for b2c goods, priced by the provider	Required without a German branch; €50.60 confirmation fee plus their own charge
Germany, batteries	stiftung ear	€16.40 per type once, then €3.80 a quarter	Not on the register’s fee page	Not covered in this guide
France, household packaging	SYDEREP (via Citeo)	Included in membership	From €110 a year (under 10,000 units)	Not covered in this guide
France, other categories	SYDEREP (via each éco-organisme)	Included in membership	Each scheme’s own tariff	Not covered in this guide
UK, packaging (large producer)	Environmental regulator	£2,842 direct or £1,803 via a scheme, yearly	Scheme fees on top	Not covered in this guide

Worked example: a fictional small seller

Lumen Desk Co. is a made-up US brand. It sells one type of LED desk lamp for home use on Amazon.de and Amazon.fr, shipped in a cardboard box, and sells about 3,000 units a year in France. Its EPR cost lines look like this:

German packaging. LUCID registration: €0. Dual system licence for the cardboard: quoted by the system on the packaging volumes you report.
German electricals. Year one register fees: €9.50 registration, €50.60 representative confirmation, €131.20 in quarterly fees for a full year and €3.80 for the yearly guarantee check, so €195.10 net. From year two: €135.00 net. Stiftung ear charges these to the representative, so ask how yours passes them on. Add the guarantee provider’s charge and the representative’s own fee.
French packaging. Under 10,000 units, so Citeo’s flat €110 excluding VAT, with the IDU allocated through membership.
French electricals. A separate IDU and éco-organisme contribution for the lamp, at that scheme’s rate.

The fixed register fees are small. The line that grows with sales is the scheme fee, so ask for that quote first, along with any representative’s fee.

Next step

Our fee is from $119 per country and registration type per year, with scheme and licence fees passed on at cost; see EPR and Responsible Person pricing. If you also need someone established in the EU for product safety, that is a separate service covered on our EU and UK Responsible Person page. Selling electronics? The consumer electronics compliance template pack covers the Declaration of Conformity, a risk assessment and a technical file checklist.

Frequently asked questions

Is EPR registration free?

In some places, yes. LUCID registration in Germany is free, and in France your éco-organisme registers you in SYDEREP as part of membership. Stiftung ear and the UK regulator charge register fees. Scheme fees apply on top in Germany and France. In the UK, large producers also pay waste disposal fees, plus scheme fees if they register through a scheme.

What is the difference between EPR registration fees and licence fees?

The registration fee pays the register to record you. The licence or participation fee pays a scheme to recycle what you sell, and it is usually based on weight, material or units.

How do I check an EPR registration number in Germany?

Use LUCID’s public register of producers. It confirms registration only. It does not show whether a system participation contract exists; your system operator gives you a separate confirmation for that.

Can someone else register on LUCID for me?

No. An authorised representative can take on your other packaging duties, but the register says the registration itself cannot be handed to a third party.

EPR registration cost: what you pay, to whom and how often