On March 5, 2024, Amazon once again issued a notice reminding sellers of the obligation to fulfill the Spanish Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and requesting that they provide a valid registration number and confirm that they are not a producer within the stipulated time limit of December 31, 2024, or else they will be forced to pay on behalf of the platform and be charged an additional handling fee!

On March 5, 2024, Amazon issued another announcement to remind sellers to fulfill the Spanish EPR obligations and asked them to provide a valid registration number and confirm that they are not producers before the deadline of December 31, 2024, otherwise, they will be forced by the platform to pay on behalf of the platform, and charge an additional handling fee!

Q:

What is the Spanish Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation?

A:

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a national and regional environmental policy in the European Union (EU) that requires producers to take responsibility for the entire life cycle of their goods, from the design of the goods to their lifecycle management (collection, sorting and recycling of waste). In the EU, EPR is implemented in different ways depending on the country/region. Spain's Royal Decree 1055/2022 (on packaging and packaging waste), as well as Act 7/2022 (on waste and contaminated soils for the circular economy), set out the obligations of companies that sell packaged goods to buyers in Spain.

Q:

What is the format of the packaging registration number?

A:

The format of the packaging registration number is "ENV/YEAR OF REGISTRATION/XXXXXXXXX", where ENV is a fixed text that appears in all the numbers, YEAR OF REGISTRATION is the year in which you are registered in the Register of Producers. XXXXXXXXXXX is a nine-digit number.

Q:

What types of packaging are subject to the Spanish Packaging Code?

A: For the purposes of the Spanish Packaging Law, packaging is defined as a product made of materials of any nature, from raw materials to finished products. All packaging used for wrapping, protecting, handling, distributing, or presenting goods is included in this scope of application, including packaging used at any stage of the manufacturing, distribution and consumption process. All disposable items used for these purposes will also be considered packaging.

Q:

What is the Amazon EPR Payment in Lieu Service?

A:

The Amazon EPR Payment in Lieu Service helps Amazon sellers comply with Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requirements in France and Spain. The service requires Amazon to make environmental payments on behalf of sellers for Amazon.fr and Amazon.es mall sales and then collect those amounts from the seller's account.

Suppose you are not a producer with a business in Spain and have not submitted a valid packaging registration number by December 31, 2023. In that case, Amazon will automatically register you for the Payment on Behalf service.

The Payment in Lieu service does not include recycling or other organizational obligations, such as prevention and eco-design business plans aimed at reducing the use of non-renewable resources, increasing the use of recycled materials, and improving the recyclability of goods. If you are a producer, please work with a producer responsibility organization or outside agency for more information on this topic.

Q:

How does the Amazon EPR Payment on Behalf Service work?

A:

① Automatically registers you in the classification where you are selling non-compliant goods, i.e., if you are selling goods in the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) classification but have not submitted a valid registration number to Amazon, Amazon will automatically register you.

② Calculate the environmental payments for your Amazon sales violations under each applicable classification and write a report.

③Submit reports and make environmental payments to eligible producer responsibility organizations selected by Amazon.

④Collect the Environmental Payment amount and service fee from your seller account.