WEEE and ElektroG - what are they all about?

In July, ano­ther part of the ElektroG came into effect in Germany: Marketplaces now have to ensu­re that a manu­fac­tu­rer regis­tra­ti­on has been done for all pro­ducts sold. ITscope veri­fies that the rele­vant pro­ducts have been pro­per­ly regis­tered with the EAR foun­da­ti­on. For this pur­po­se, manu­fac­tu­r­ers and retail­ers need to pro­vi­de their WEEE num­ber on the ITscope platform.

The Elektro- and Elektronikgerätegesetz (ElektroG) by the European WEEE direc­ti­ve regu­la­tes how elec­tri­cal devices should be brought to the mar­ket, taken back, and envi­ron­men­tal­ly dis­po­sed of. The law aims to redu­ce elec­tro­nic was­te, con­ser­ve resour­ces, and decrease envi­ron­men­tal pol­lu­ti­on cau­sed by hazar­dous sub­s­tances. According to the ElektroG, com­pa­nies are only allo­wed to sell elec­tro­nics if they are regis­tered with the Elektro-Altgeräte-Register (EAR) foun­da­ti­on and have a WEEE num­ber as a result.

The obli­ga­ti­on to regis­ter and obtain a WEEE num­ber pri­ma­ri­ly appli­es to manu­fac­tu­r­ers and importers of elec­tri­cal and elec­tro­nic devices who bring the­se pro­ducts to the German mar­ket under their own name or brand. However, if retail­ers and dis­tri­bu­tors are clas­si­fied as manu­fac­tu­r­ers becau­se they offer or assem­ble devices under their own name, they must also register.

For more details on manu­fac­tu­rer regis­tra­ti­on, you can find addi­tio­nal infor­ma­ti­on from the EAR foun­da­ti­on.

ITscope veri­fies all offers on the plat­form, ensu­ring that you exclu­si­ve­ly purcha­se from mar­ket par­ti­ci­pan­ts who­se pro­ducts have been pro­per­ly regis­tered with the EAR foun­da­ti­on. Offers that do not meet the requi­re­ments will no lon­ger be available on ITscope. Therefore, obli­ga­ted manu­fac­tu­r­ers and retail­ers must have their cur­rent data stored in their ITscope pro­fi­le. This includes the WEEE num­ber, com­pa­ny name, and pos­tal code. Additionally, we requi­re the WEEE regis­tra­ti­on num­ber, EAR cate­go­ry, and EAR device type accor­ding to the ElektroG – pre­fer­a­b­ly as colum­ns within your pri­ce list.

In the coming days, we’ll be sen­ding sepa­ra­te infor­ma­ti­on to all obli­ga­ted manu­fac­tu­r­ers and retail­ers regar­ding the regis­tra­ti­on pro­cess and the sub­mis­si­on of WEEE num­bers. These details will pro­vi­de a tho­rough expl­ana­ti­on of the spe­ci­fic requi­re­ments involved.

If you have any imme­dia­te ques­ti­ons about data sub­mis­si­on, plea­se feel free to reach out to our sup­port team.