Starting January 1, 2025, a German regulation (Extended Producer Responsibility for Single-Use plastic) will affect your products containing single-use plastic sold on Amazon.de. To continue selling products containing single-use plastic on Amazon.de, sellers need to comply with the Extended Producer Responsibility requirements and submit a registration number to Amazon before January 1, 2025. After this date, Amazon will stop selling your non-compliant products.
➪Do I need to register for the Single-Use plastic Tax for my products?
➪Do I need to register for the Single-Use plastic Tax if I am registered for the Packaging Act?
➪Can I register myself?
➪When do I have to register and for whom?
➪What are the risks of non-compliance?
- What is the Single-Use Plastic Tax
According to Section 3, Paragraph 1 of the EWKFondsG, single-use plastic products are products made entirely or partially of plastic that are not designed, developed and placed on the market for the purpose of undergoing multiple product cycles during their life cycle by returning to plastic by the manufacturer or distributor for refilling or reuse for the same purpose as when manufactured.
According to the above definition, there is no minimum threshold for the plastic content of single-use items, which means that all products fall within the scope.
- Who is affected
① The company is established in Germany and manufactures, fills, sells or imports (regardless of the sales method) single-use plastic goods in Germany for the first time and puts them on the market for sale in Germany
If you are a producer of a registered company in Germany, please register all your brands in each single-use plastic classification through the single-use Plastic Fund Platform (DIVID) of the German Environment Agency to obtain a registration number. If you dropship or resell single-use plastic goods, please ask your upstream supplier for a registration number;
② The company is not established in Germany but sells single-use plastic goods directly to private households or other users through remote communication (e.g., online sales).
If you are a producer and your company is not registered in Germany, you can create an account on DIVID and appoint an authorized representative to fulfill the requirements for single-use plastic for you. From August 1, 2024, you can register your brand on DIVID.
3.How to determine whether your products fall within the scope of the single-use plastic tax
Based on the above definition, we roughly know the explanation of single-use plastic. But for specific plastic products, we can refer to the EU single-use plastic Directive. The current plastic products are as follows:
Single-use plastic products covered by Article 10 on awareness raising
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(1) |
Food containers, i.e. receptacles such as boxes, with or without a cover, used to contain food which:
including food containers used for fast food or other meal ready for immediate consumption, except beverage containers, plates and packets and wrappers containing food; |
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(2) |
Packets and wrappers made from flexible material containing food that is intended for immediate consumption from the packet or wrapper without any further preparation; |
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(3) |
Beverage containers with a capacity of up to three litres, i.e. receptacles used to contain liquid such as beverage bottles including their caps and lids and composite beverage packaging including their caps and lids, but not glass or metal beverage containers that have caps and lids made from plastic; |
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(4) |
Cups for beverages, including their covers and lids; |
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(5) |
Tobacco products with filters and filters marketed for use in combination with tobacco products; |
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(6) |
Wet wipes, i.e. pre-wetted personal care and domestic wipes; |
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(7) |
Balloons, except balloons for industrial or other professional uses and applications that are not distributed to consumers; |
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(8) |
Lightweight plastic carrier bags as defined in point 1c of Article 3 of Directive 94/62/EC; |
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(9) |
Sanitary towels (pads), tampons and tampon applicators. |
The product liability determination of Germany's single-use plastic tax needs to be manually reviewed by the official. You can also check whether your products need to comply with single-use plastic regulations.
- When must registration take place and for whom?
In principle, registration must take place before the first commercialization on the German market and/or before the sale of single-use plastic products from abroad to domestic private or commercial end users within the scope of the EWKFondsG in accordance with Annex 1. Manufacturers that started operations before January 1, 2024 must register on the Federal Environment Agency's Single-use plastic Fund platform DIVID by December 31, 2024. Manufacturers that started operations for the first time as of January 1, 2024 are required by law to register immediately. Failure to register will of course have no consequences, as long as the registration is due to the digital platform not being available in time. For manufacturers with a branch in Germany, registration on DIVID will be possible as of April 1, 2024. The start date for registration for manufacturers without a branch in Germany will be announced on DIVID and on the homepage www.ewkf.de.
In general, we would like to point out that tax obligations will apply from 2024 regardless of whether and when registration takes place.
For fireworks and firecracker production enterprises, if they start business activities before January 1, 2026, they must register before December 31, 2026. Otherwise, in principle, they should register before starting activities, but not earlier than January 1, 2026.
- Do I need to register for single-useplasticafter registering for the Packaging Act?
As long as you sell products in Germany, the products you sell use packaging materials, including materials used to protect, package, transport and display goods, such as cartons, plastic bags, bottles, etc. They all need to register for the Packaging Act! However, the German single-use plastic tax currently only involves mandatory registration of single-use plastic such as food, cups, balloons, etc.! ! !
- What happens if you don't register?
A penalty system will be implemented for non-compliance (such as failure to register, incorrect declaration of the number of single-use plastic), and failure to register will be subject to a fine of up to 100,000 euros. If you violate the rules, the authorities will also be eligible to confiscate all goods on the market. In addition, the penalty system also includes sanctions on companies that allow non-compliant operators to provide goods on the German market (such as electronic interfaces/online markets).
We recommend that you register on DIVID immediately to ensure that you can prove compliance to Amazon when the compliance portal goes online to accept declarations of single-use plastic products in Q3-Q4 2024. If you have more questions about the single-use plastic tax, please consult Amber.