What are the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) obligations in Spain and what do I need to do?

The Spanish Packaging Act is aimed at companies that market packed products used by households. The goal of this legislation is to ensure that the amount of packaging is reduced and as much packaging as possible is recycled. The obligations apply to all B2C packaging, meaning all primary (product) packaging and all secondary (shipping) packaging. 

Now, the Spanish government has enforced a new regulation (the Royal Decree 1055/2022 on packaging and packaging waste) and set up a mandatory compliance system that operates as follows: 

Each platform - in this instance, Zalando - must be able to prove that our partners who are not headquartered in Spain but sell in the Spanish market via Zalando have appointed an authorized representative with regard to its EPR duties deriving from the Royal Decree 1055/2022 on packaging and packaging waste.

This means that partners are responsible for appointing an authorized representative, registering with the appropriate organizations (more details below) as well as the Spanish Register of Product Producers (packaging section), and report the used packaging accordingly to continue selling on Zalando. By doing that partners will be issued an EPR registration number that may be requested by Zalando.

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 and beyond.

Up until now, this has primarily meant that the distributor (such as Zalando and its 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. 

Generally speaking, the “producer” is the company who puts a product on the market for the first time. Please note that a producer is not the equivalent of a manufacturer. When it comes to packaging that means the following:

For packaging you are accountable for your primary packaging and / or the secondary packaging added by you, such as delivery packaging. For example, by placing an article within either or both types of packaging, you are therefore also considered a producer if you are delivering to private households.

Companies who put packaging on the Spanish market (and are therefore considered producers) are responsible for two registrations:

1. First with a Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO), if you haven’t already done so. At the moment there are Ecoembes and Procircular. 

2. Second, with the public manufacturer register: Registro de Productores de Producto. 

However, companies that have their registered office outside of Spain must appoint an authorised representative in Spain to register you. You can appoint anyone who is registered in Spain. We suggest you contact AuthoriseMe or Arca Consortium to get further information and / or if you need an authorised representative. 

After registration, each company is assigned a corresponding EPR registration number. The EPR registration number will always begin with the letters ENV, then the four digits of the year the EPR registration number was first issued, and then nine characters. 

For example: ENV/YEAR OF REGISTRATION/XXXXXXXXX.

Companies who put packaging on the Spanish market (and are therefore considered producers) are responsible for two annual reportings:

1. First, before the 28th of February of every year, companies must report the quantity of packaging they put on the Spanish market in the previous year to the PRO with which they are registered (i.e. Ecoembes or ProCircular). This is done through the so-called Packaging Declaration. This declaration includes the economic contribution calculation regarding the packaged goods traded by the company in the last calendar year. The contribution (fee) will depend both on the amount of packaging placed in the market and their weight and the type of material. More information about the declaration and contribution can be provided by the PRO.

2. Second, after registering with the new Registro de Productores de Producto (Register of product producers) companies need to report the volumes of packaging put on the Spanish market retroactively. For upcoming years, the reporting period will be Q1 for the year before (e.g. Jan-March 2025 for 2024). 

After registering with the public manufacturer Registro de Productores de Producto, each company is assigned a corresponding EPR registration number. Companies who are not based in Spain, need to appoint a Spanish authorized representative who will on behalf of the company request the EPR number.

All partners should register for their packaging.

For packaging you are accountable for your primary packaging and / or the secondary packaging added by you, such as delivery packaging. For example, by placing an article within either or both types of packaging, you are therefore also considered a producer if you are delivering to private households.

In order to obtain your EPR registration number(s), and also to comply with all other obligations or to receive appropriate information, we strongly recommend that you seek professional advice or contact your authorized recycling provider for packaging. 

We recommend the following contacts:

• AuthoriseMe GmbH

Website: https://authoriseme.eu/

• Arca Consortium

Website: https://www.arcaconsortium.net/index.html

Partners must provide the following information upon request: 

• Legal name as listed in the Spanish register (Nombre / Razón social)

• Spanish VAT / taxpayer reference number = NIF del fabricante as used for the Spanish register  (e.g. A20094777)

• Spanish EPR ID (e.g. ENV/2023/123456789).

It’s important that you submit your EPR ID via your Business Profile in zDirect. You can find a step-by-step guide for how to do so here. Please note this is a regulatory requirement as outlined in Zalando’s Platform rules.

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

Partners who sell products to Spanish households, regardless of their location, are obliged to request an EPR registration number. 

Partners headquartered in Spain can request the EPR registration number directly, however partners who are not headquartered in Spain, need to appoint a Spanish authorized representative who will request the EPR number on behalf of the partner. 

Zalando is only obliged to request EPR numbers from those non-Spanish partners.

If you are not a partner in one of the set-up mentioned above (currently not able to obtain an EPR ID), you have the obligation to provide your EPR ID to Zalando. Failure to do so could potentially suspend you from selling in Spain.