What are the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) obligations in France?

The French government has enforced a new regulation (called “AGEC”, which is the law against wastage and for circular economy) and set up a mandatory compliance system that operates as follows: 

Each platform - in this instance, Zalando - is required to provide for, or contribute to, the prevention and management of waste. To comply with this provision, Zalando must be able to prove that our partners who sell in the French market via Zalando have each been issued with a unique ID number (“Identifiant Unique” or UIN) from the ADEME (l’Agence de la transition écologique - the French Agency for Ecological Transition).

Partners are responsible for registering with the appropriate organizations (more details below) and ensuring that you are compliant and able to continue selling on Zalando.

Zalando is responsible for creating and maintaining a register containing: the identification details of each partner selling in the French market, their VAT number, their unique ID number, and the quantities of products covered by EPR schemes, by category, sold by each partner.

This register must be made available to the ADEME upon request.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a concept where manufacturers, importers or distributors of products (such as Zalando and its partners) will bear a significant degree of responsibility for the environmental impacts of their products throughout the product life-cycle. 

Up until now, this has primarily meant that the distributor (in this case, our partners) has to make sure that their products are part of a recycling program. Typically, partners delegate this responsibility to a third party, a so-called Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO), which is paid to look after used-product management. 

In order to ensure that their products are part of a recycling program, partners therefore register with a PRO, report the quantity of products sold, and pay the respective fee to the PRO. 

A producer refers to "any natural or legal person who develops, manufactures, handles, processes, sells or imports waste-generating products or the elements and materials used to manufacture them”. Please note that a producer is not an equivalent of a manufacturer.

This will either be a company present in another state supplying products to a French distributor, or a French company supplying products on the French market. 

In the case of a company selling its products directly to French end-users, it is the distant seller i.e. the company selling online. For Zalando and our partners, this therefore refers to partner brands as well as most retailers. 

However, if a retailer works with an upstream supplier who is considered a producer in France as defined above (e.g. an importer), the retailer is not considered a producer. 

Please be aware of the following requirements specific to packaging: for packaging you are accountable for your primary packaging and / or the secondary packaging added by you, such as delivery packaging, i.e. if you place an article within the packaging, you are therefore also considered a producer.

Please reach out to the relevant PRO that you are registered with, or from the list below, if the classification between producer / non-producer raises questions.

Every producer selling products in France that fall within an EPR scheme (e.g. textiles, packaging) must register with a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) relevant to the product categories you carry. There are further details on the product categories in Point 6. The PROs can also be found in the list below. 

Each partner is responsible for two registrations:

1. First with a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO), if you haven’t already done so. The PRO will issue you with a registration number. In order to receive this number, it is mandatory to pay the required EPR fees. There is more information listed below about the PROs for each product category.

2. Secondly, with the ADEME to get the new unique ID number (UIN). Registration with the ADEME is only possible after registering with a PRO and if you are EPR-compliant. After registration, the unique ID number will be issued from the ADEME to the PRO; the PRO will transfer the new number to its members from early 2022. 

For example: If you sell textiles, you must register with two PROs: one for textiles and one for packaging because of the product packaging, and if you are not a ZFS partner, your shipping packaging. This means that you will get two unique ID numbers: one for textiles and one for packaging. 

If you do not produce or import products, but buy them from a retailer (upstream supplier) within France, your retailer should already have registered. Zalando then requests from you the unique ID number(s) of your upstream supplier(s) as proof of compliance.

If you sell products from different upstream suppliers located in France, you must provide Zalando with the unique ID number of all your upstream suppliers. 

For example:  If you buy your textiles from two suppliers in France, you will have to provide Zalando with the unique ID numbers of both of your upstream suppliers. This would be one unique ID number for textiles and one unique ID number for the product packaging from both suppliers. 

For partners using their own fulfillment on Zalando, you will additionally need to provide Zalando with your own unique ID number for shipping packaging as well. ZFS partners will not need to provide this information, in this case.

If you:

(i) Sell products from upstream supplier(s) located in France, and; 

(ii) Import products from suppliers located outside France, 

You must provide Zalando with the unique ID numbers from your upstream supplier(s) and with your own unique ID number with regard to the products you imported.  

In most cases, once you are registered with a PRO, they will take care of the registration to ADEME for their members. The PROs in France have been providing the unique ID numbers to you since early 2022. However, please note that your unique ID number can only be issued if all EPR obligations have been fulfilled. This includes paying any required EPR fees. 

Your unique ID number will only remain valid and be extended year by year if you report in the correct way and pay the requested annual fees. 

In most cases, your PRO should provide the unique ID number to you when you log in to your account on their website. 

The unique ID number has this format: FR239691_01VNFV 

• It begins with capitalized ‘FR’

• Six characters between ‘FR’ and ‘_’ are always numbers

• The ninth character is always an underscore ‘_’

• The last four characters are capitalized letters, not numbers

For packaging all ID numbers contain “_01”; for textiles all ID numbers contain “_11”. Apart from the “FR” at the start, the other digits and letters are randomized. 

The unique identification number is valid for one year and is extended if all EPR commitments are met. 

The EPR schemes in France are i.a. applicable to products that belong to any of the following categories:

Yes; for partners selling in the French market you must register for every EPR product category that applies to your assortment on Zalando. All partners should have a packaging UIN, and the large majority should have a textile UIN.

For example:

• If you sell textiles and oversee your own fulfillment, you should have a textile UIN and a packaging UIN. This UIN will suffice for both the product and shipping packaging. 

• If you sell textiles and use ZFS, they take care of the secondary (shipping) packaging. However, you should still have a textile UIN and a packaging UIN because of the product packaging. 

• If you sell electronics and textiles, you should have a textiles UIN, an electronics UIN and a packaging UIN.

If you are a ZFS partner, then ZFS takes care of the shipment, meaning the secondary (shipping) packaging is the responsibility of ZFS. You don’t need to report the secondary shipping packaging to the PRO and you don’t need a UIN for it. 

However, though the shipping packaging is not your responsibility, the textile (if applicable) and the product packaging still is. This means that you must send your unique identification number for textiles and packaging.

Please check the respective website of the respective PROs linked above. You can also reach out to Fenja Petrich from Léko Sas especially for further guidance regarding packaging. For guidance with regard to textiles please reach out to Julia Aldeguer from Refashion.

Website: Léko Sas

POC: Fenja Petrich

Phone: +49 221 58 00 98 2793

Email:  fenja.petrich@leko-organisme.fr

Website: Refashion

POC: Julia Aldeguer

Phone: +33 (0)7 88 76 36 72

Email:  j.aldeguer@refashion.fr

Partners must provide the following information upon request: 

• Legal name: the registered name of your company shown on your Zalando contract.

• Unique ID number(s) issued by the ADEME in the following format: FR230691_01VNFV

It’s important that you submit your UINs via your Business Profile in zDirect. You can find a step-by-step guide in the article about how to submit your EPR here.

• How to submit your EPR numbers in zDirect

Please note this is a regulatory requirement as outlined in Zalando’s Platform rules.

If your unique ID number is not accepted or an error occurs, please follow these steps:

1. Ensure that the number(s) you are providing is an unique ID number with the format: FR230691_01VNFV. Your PRO registration number is formatted differently. Zalando doesn’t require this number.

2. Double-check that the unique ID number has been typed using uppercase letters, all characters such as underscores ‘_’, and without spaces.

3. Check that the unique ID number corresponds to the correct category (i.e. textiles or packaging).

4. Connect with the respective PRO to ensure that the unique ID number is correct and has been assigned to the category.

Examples of incorrect unique ID numbers:

Not all companies have registered with PROs. As a result, French regulators have begun to place increased responsibility onto marketplaces to better control whether the sellers on the marketplace in question are registered or not.

The French government has enforced a new regulation making it mandatory to print a Triman logo, along with sorting instructions, on recyclable products and packaging sold to consumers in France. Zalando’s partners who makes products and / or packaging available in the French market for the first time (e.g. as manufacturer or importer) are obliged to take care that products and their primary (product) packaging that are sold to the French market are equipped with the correct Triman logo along with the relevant sorting instructions. You can find more information in our article about the new labelling obligations in France and what to do here below.

• The environmental labelling obligations of packaging in France

Yes; the process outlined above is specifically for the French market and applies to partners selling in France. 

For EPR schemes in other markets that you sell in, for example, Germany, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands and Spain, you will need to register with them separately. For further information, please reach out to Léko Sas via the contact details provided above.

Failure to provide Zalando with your EPR Unique identification number has the potential to suspend you from selling in France. It is a mandatory requirement of selling on our platform as outlined in the Platform rules.