WEEE registration in Germany for foreign Shopify sellers

Does Germany's WEEE law cover my products?

ElektroG applies to all electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). Section 3 no. 1 defines it as equipment that depends on electric current or electromagnetic fields to work properly, or that generates, transmits or measures them, designed for up to 1,000 V AC or 1,500 V DC. Section 2(1) sorts it into six categories: heat exchangers; screens and monitors with a surface over 100 cm2; lamps; large equipment with any external dimension over 50 cm; small equipment with no dimension over 50 cm; and small IT and telecommunications equipment with no dimension over 50 cm. Annex 1 lists examples.

For a Shopify catalogue a useful first screen is: if it plugs in, charges, runs on batteries or has a circuit board, treat it as EEE until the statutory definition says otherwise. Chargers, LED lights, speakers, e-scooters, smart-home devices, electric toothbrushes, toys with a motor, a jacket with a heating element: Annex 1 names clothing with electrical functions and electrical toys expressly. Section 2(2) lists ten exclusions, each with limits: equipment specially built into large fixed installations, most vehicles (but electric two-wheelers that need no type approval are in scope), certain medical devices, and a few others that a typical online store does not sell.

Why am I the producer if I only resell?

Because the producer definition in Section 3 no. 9 has a limb written for you. Letter (d) makes a producer of anyone who offers EEE directly to end users in Germany using means of distance communication and is established in another EU Member State or a third country. A US, UK, Dutch or French Shopify store shipping a speaker to a consumer in Munich is that person. It does not matter who manufactured the speaker or whose brand is on it.

This is different from a German reseller. A German shop that buys equipment exclusively from a producer who is properly registered for that brand and equipment type is a distributor, not a producer, and needs no registration of its own. The foreign distance seller never gets that option, because letter (d) captures it directly.

Can a foreign company register directly with stiftung ear?

No. stiftung ear, the clearing house that runs the register on behalf of the Umweltbundesamt, is explicit: a foreign company without a German establishment cannot register itself and needs an authorised representative (Bevollmächtigter) located in Germany to take over its producer obligations. For a distance seller this is not optional. Section 8(2) ElektroG requires a producer under Section 3 no. 9(d) to appoint one.

Section 8 sets the rules for the mandate: a producer may appoint only one representative; the mandate must be in writing, in German, and valid for at least three months; and the producer must name the representative to the authority with a copy of the mandate. The appointment takes effect only once stiftung ear confirms it, through the ear-Portal, and then the representative performs the registration and the ongoing duties in its own name on your behalf. The representative is a commercial service you pay for, and the market has a range of providers; ElektroG does not fix their price.

Is registration per company, per brand, per product, or per SKU?

Per brand and equipment type. Section 6(1) requires the producer, or its representative, to register with the authority with the equipment type and brand before placing equipment on the market. The Geräteart (equipment type) is finer than the six categories in Section 2: stiftung ear keeps its own list, and one category contains several types, including separate types for equipment used in private households and equipment used only by businesses. One store with one brand selling lamps and small speakers needs a registration for the brand in each relevant type. It is not one application per SKU, and a registration for one brand does not cover a second brand you also sell.

stiftung ear is strict about what a brand is. It need not be a registered trademark, but registering under 'no brand', 'no name', a plain type designation, a product description or the WEEE number itself is inadmissible. If you sell unbranded goods, you will need to decide which name goes on the product and on the registration, and it must match.

What documents, guarantees, fees and time are involved?

• A financing guarantee for equipment that can be used in private households (Section 7(1)): every year, an insolvency-proof guarantee for the cost of taking back and disposing of the equipment, in one of the forms listed in Section 7(2), which includes joining a suitable collective system.
• For exclusively professional equipment (Section 7(3) and 7a): instead of the guarantee, substantiation that the equipment is not used in private households plus a take-back concept.
• The application data in Annex 2, submitted by the representative through the ear-Portal.

The statutory fees are set in the fee ordinance (ElektroGBattDGGebV) and are modest: EUR 9.50 for granting a registration per producer, brand and equipment type, and a quarterly fee of EUR 32.80 per registration number per started calendar quarter. Reviewing the professional-use substantiation and take-back concept costs EUR 18.90 per registration; reviewing an individual guarantee has its own fee items. Those are the authority's fees. The representative's fee, the guarantee or collective system, and the actual recycling costs are separate and commercial, which is why the 'WEEE registration costs X' figures on vendor sites cannot be compared without knowing what is bundled.

On timing, stiftung ear says a complete and correct application normally takes three to four weeks, longer for complex cases or at busy times. Add the time to find and mandate a representative before that.

Where must the WEEE number and markings appear?

Section 6(3) requires every producer to state its registration number when offering the equipment and on invoices. 'Offering' is defined in Section 3 no. 6 as presenting or making equipment publicly accessible with a view to concluding a sale, which is exactly what a Shopify product page does. In practice the WEEE number (format: DE followed by eight digits) goes in each product offer and on every invoice to a German customer; many stores also put it in the legal notice, which is fine as an addition but does not replace the offer.

The equipment itself also has to be marked (Section 9 and Annex 3): a durable marking that identifies the producer, a marking from which it can be established that the equipment was first placed on the European market after the statutory cut-off date, and the crossed-out wheeled bin symbol. Where size or function makes it impossible, the symbol (and the date marking combined with it) can go on the packaging, instructions or guarantee instead. That is a product-spec question for your manufacturer, and a good one to ask before the first German order rather than after.

Does a German WEEE registration cover batteries, packaging or GPSR?

No, on all three. The registration is valid only in Germany and only for the brand and equipment type it names. If the product contains or comes with a battery, that is a separate registration by brand and battery category, also handled through stiftung ear. Your shipping packaging is packaging EPR under the LUCID register, a different law with a different authority. And the product-safety information on the listing (the EU Responsible Person, warnings, identifiers) is GPSR, which has nothing to do with waste at all. One product can sit in all four streams at once. Our guide to WEEE and battery registration for online sellers covers the battery side and the other countries.

What to do, in order

• Go through your catalogue and flag every product that plugs in, charges, runs on batteries or has a circuit board
• Assign each flagged product to the right Geräteart (equipment type), including whether it is for private households or business use, per brand
• Mandate one German authorised representative: written, in German, at least three months
• Have the representative apply per brand and equipment type, with the financing guarantee or professional-use substantiation
• Do not ship EEE to Germany until the registration order has been issued
• Put the WEEE number in every product offer and on every invoice to a German customer
• Check the battery, packaging and GPSR streams separately; a WEEE number covers none of them

How Assuro helps

Assuro connects to your Shopify store and lets you flag which products are electrical equipment and which German ElektroG category they fall into, then shows, per product, where a German WEEE registration is missing alongside the packaging, battery and GPSR gaps for the same item. It records your registration number and the reporting deadlines (monthly quantity reports by the 15th for household equipment under Section 27, and the 30 April annual reports) so nothing is lost between the representative and the store. Assuro organises and flags; it does not register you, act as your representative or certify anything. Scan your store free to see which products are exposed.