EU Requirements: If you are selling electrical or electronic equipment (“EEE”)in the EU, you may be subject to the European Directive 2012/19/EU (the “WEEE Directive”) concerning the collection and recycling of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (“WEEE”) and the national laws implementing this Directive.
It is your responsibility to comply with the WEEE Directive for products sold in the EU. You must also comply with national laws and regulations in EU Member States, which implement the WEEE Directive.
Please see below for further information about EU requirements.
UK Requirements: If you are selling electrical or electronic equipment (“EEE”) in the UK, you may be subject to the UK’s Regulation SI 2013/3113 (the “WEEE Regulation”) concerning the collection and recycling of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (“WEEE”). In the following, you can find a short overview of the requirements of the WEEE Regulation and how this affects you as a seller.
It is your responsibility to comply with the WEEE Regulation for products sold in the UK. If you also sell these products on Amazon EU website(s), then you must also comply with national laws and regulations in EU Member States, which implement the WEEE Directive.
Please see below for further information about UK requirements.
This material is for informational purposes and you should not take it as a substitute for legal advice. We encourage you to consult your legal counsel for any concerns about the laws and regulations concerning your product. This material only reflects the position at the date of writing and requirements across the EU and in the UK may change. You should refer to current UK Brexit guidance about your products (where available) to learn more about changes that may affect you from 1 January 2021.
The purpose of the WEEE Directive is to prevent the creation of WEEE, to reduce the disposal of waste into the environment and to contribute to the efficient use of resources and the retrieval of valuable secondary raw materials. Therefore, the WEEE Directive aims at involving all operators taking part in the life cycle of EEE, e.g. producers, distributors and consumers, in the collection and treatment of WEEE. The WEEE Directive lays down the essential criteria on the management of WEEE and the responsibility of producers and distributors, and creates minimum standards for the treatment of WEEE.
Since this Directive only lays down the minimum standards and each Member State of the EU implements these standards in its own laws, there can be discrepancies between the national regulations. Please inform yourself about the applicable national laws for every EU Member State you deliver to; we can only provide you with a broad overview.
The WEEE Directive is meant to cover all EEE used by consumers and EEE intended for professional use.
Specifically, the WEEE Directive applies to any equipment powered by electricity or through electromagnetic fields and designed for use with voltage <1000 volts AC and <1500 volts DC. You can find the (few) products with exceptions in Article 2 of the WEEE Directive.
The WEEE Directive places obligations on both producers and distributors, which includes mere sellers. Many EEE sellers will be considered producers for the purpose of the Directive. You can be a mere seller in one member state and at the same time, a producer in a different member state.
If you are not established in the Member State to which you dispatch products, for that Member State, You are a producer if you are a natural or legal person and:
You are a distributor if:
All producers must in particular:
Member states have some room to implement the Directive in different ways. Below you'll find an overview of such country-specific rules on WEEE for Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain.
For more detailed information, please visit the website of the relevant national register; for an overview see here.
If selling EEE in the EU, distributors are responsible for ensuring customers can dispose of their old WEEE free of charge and on a one-to-one basis when selling the customer a new or equivalent version of the item.
This obligation is implemented at a national level, therefore requirements may differ in each Member State. We encourage you to check national requirements in each Member State where you act as a distributor.
The purpose of the WEEE Regulation is to prevent the creation of WEEE, to reduce the disposal of waste into the environment and to contribute to the efficient use of resources and the retrieval of valuable secondary raw materials. Therefore, the WEEE Regulation aims at involving all operators taking part in the life cycle of EEE, e.g. producers, distributors and consumers, in the collection and treatment of WEEE. The WEEE Regulation lays down the essential criteria on the management of WEEE and the responsibility of producers and distributors, and creates minimum standards for the treatment of WEEE.
The WEEE Regulation is meant to cover all EEE used by consumers and EEE intended for professional use.
Specifically, the WEEE Regulation applies to any equipment powered by electricity or through electromagnetic fields and designed for use with voltage <1000 volts AC and <1500 volts DC. You can find the (few) products that are exempt in Regulations 7 and 8 of the WEEE Regulation.
The WEEE Regulation places obligations on both producers and distributors, which includes mere sellers. Many EEE sellers will be considered producers for the purpose of the Regulation.
You are a producer if you are a natural or legal person and:
You are a distributor if you sell EEE in the UK (you may also be a producer).
If selling EEE in the UK, all producers must in particular:
If selling EEE in the UK, distributors must provide a way for customers to dispose of their old WEEE when selling them a new version of the same item. This applies regardless of how the products are sold and include online sales.
If distributors do not have their own take back service, they must join the Distributor Takeback Scheme.
Distributors must also provide information to customers on WEEE (including which take back service they provide, how they can reuse and recycle WEEE, why WEEE needs to be separated from other waste, the damaging effects of not recycling WEEE and the meaning of the crossed-out wheelie bin symbol).
For more detailed information, please see UK guidance on producer responsibilities and on distributor responsibilities.
Please also visit the website of the relevant national register detailed below:
We also encourage you to visit the UK’s Business Companion website, which contains guidance on UK product compliance rules: