As take-e-way already reported, operators of electronic marketplaces and fulfilment service providers are required to check as of 1 July 2023 whether producers/sellers have duly registered their electrical and electronic equipment with the Elektro-Altgeräte Register (EAR) foundation. If producers (sellers can also be producers within the meaning of ElektroG) or authorised representatives are not properly registered or not registered at all, operators of electronic marketplaces may not enable their electrical equipment to be offered or made available. Therefore, the central question arises as to who actually is a “producer” as contemplated by the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act.
The EAR Foundation provides an overview on its website of who is or is deemed to be a producer within the meaning of the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act (ElektroG / WEEE Germany). This is defined in § 3 number 9 ElektroG. A producer is (excerpt):
- the producer, meaning the person who produces electrical or electronic equipment under his name, or own brand, or has them designed or produced and offers them under his name or brand in Germany (§ 3 number 9a) aa) and bb) ElektroG).
- a person who offers electrical and electronic equipment from other producers under his own name or brand in Germany, or resells these commercially.
- whoever offers electrical and electronic equipment that does not originate from Germany – but from a third country or another EU member state – for the first time on the German market (§ 3 number 9 c) ElektroG) within a commercial operation. That is why an importer can be producer according to ElektroG.
- Equal to a producer according to ElektroG are those who as distributor culpably (intentionally or negligently) offer electrical and electronic equipment for sale that are from non – or not correctly – registered producers or from foreign producers whose authorised representatives are not or not correctly registered (§ 3 number 9 d) clause 2 ElektroG).
A promotional product supplier can be a producer with a registration obligation if he
- produces electrical and electronic equipment himself and labels these with his own brand name (§ 3 number 9 a) ElektroG).
- imports electrical and electronic equipment – regardless whichever brand – to Germany without the supplier having appointed an authorised representative according to § 8 ElektroG and this authorised representative is not registered correctly (§ 3 number 9 c) in combination with § 8 paragraph 4 clause 5 ElektroG).
Even assemblers, companies that only assemble the electrical and electronic equipment (i.e. computers) with different components, can be producers according to ElektroG. If the assembler uses components for which the producer is registered in Germany, then the appropriate label on the components must be retained during assembly.
Whoever wants to know whether their own products meet the new requirements should quickly secure one of the coveted places at our Product Compliance webinar “Top 25 questions – How to stay compliant?”
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