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EPR Registration Number: What It Is, How to Get One and How Many You Need

An EPR number is a registration number from a national producer register, not an EU-wide identifier. The format of the German LUCID number and the French IDU, how many registrations you actually need, why marketplaces suspend listings, and what PPWR Article 44 changed on 12 August 2026.

Author: myDPP Team

EPR Registration Number: What It Is, How to Get One and How Many You Need

“What is our EPR number?” sounds like a question about a single field in a company record. In practice there is no such thing as the EPR number — there are as many as you have combinations of country, waste stream and role in which you place goods on the market. A seller shipping wireless earbuds in a cardboard box to Germany and France needs six numbers: packaging, electrical equipment and batteries, separately in each country. None of them substitutes for the others.

The number usually becomes visible only when it is missing. A marketplace suspends the listing, a customer asks for proof, a market surveillance authority sends a letter. Since 12 August 2026 the EU Packaging Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (PPWR) has made registration a precondition for placing packaging on the market and obliges online platforms to check whether a seller is actually registered. This article explains what an EPR registration number is, what it looks like in Germany and France, how to obtain one, and where the same data meets the digital product passport.

Key takeaways

  • There is no single EU-wide EPR number. Registers are national — PPWR Article 44 requires every Member State to run its own producer register, and registration is a precondition for placing packaging on that market.
  • Numbers multiply across waste streams, not only across countries. Packaging, electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), batteries, textiles and furniture are separate EPR schemes with separate registers and separate numbers.
  • Germany: two different numbers in two different registers. The LUCID number has the format DE plus 13 digits (packaging register run by the Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister). The WEEE registration number from Stiftung EAR is DE plus 8 digits.
  • France: one IDU per waste stream. The identifiant unique issued by ADEME through SYDEREP is 13 characters in the format FR123456_10ABCD — SYDEREP number, underscore, two-digit stream code and four random letters. Mandatory since 1 January 2022.
  • The marketplace is now the enforcement layer. PPWR Article 45 requires platforms to verify a seller’s registration before enabling sales; German law already required this for packaging and electronics, and DSA Article 30 obliges platforms to collect trader identification data.
  • A number is not the same as scheme membership. Registration is notifying the state; licensing is paying for collection and recycling. Without the second step the first one is worthless.
  • Producers without an establishment in a given Member State need an authorised representative for EPR — since 12 August 2026 this also applies to companies from other EU countries, not only from third countries.

What an EPR number is — and what it is not

“EPR” stands for extended producer responsibility: the principle that whoever places a product on the market bears the cost of collecting, sorting and recycling it at end of life. It originates in Articles 8 and 8a of the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC and is implemented through national law and sector-specific EU regulations.

An EPR number is a registration number assigned by a national producer register after you file. It is not a VAT number, not an EORI number and not the contract number of a compliance scheme. It serves three purposes:

  • proof of registration towards authorities and business partners,
  • a reporting key under which you declare the quantities placed on the market,
  • a mandatory field in marketplace back ends and, increasingly, in commercial documents.

Two concepts have to stay strictly separate. Registration is filing with the state register and receiving the number — with no waste fee attached. Licensing, or scheme participation, is the contract with a producer responsibility organisation and the actual payment for collection and recycling. A register number without valid scheme membership is a breach, not evidence of compliance — and marketplaces now check both. We describe that dividing line in detail in the article on extended producer responsibility for packaging.

Three axes that multiply your numbers

The number of registrations you need rarely follows the number of products. It follows the product of three axes.

Axis one: country. The register is national. Registering in Germany does not cover France, even if you ship from the same warehouse. Seven target markets mean seven procedures, seven reporting calendars and seven numbers in every stream that applies to you.

Axis two: waste stream. Packaging, electrical and electronic equipment, batteries, textiles, furniture, tyres, oils — each stream is a separate scheme with its own register. France is the most literal about it: ADEME issues one IDU per stream, not one per company.

Axis three: role. The party that must register is the one that first makes the product available on a given market. In distance selling from Germany to France you are the producer under French rules, not your French customer. If you buy pre-packaged goods from a French distributor and sell them in France, generally you are not. The role logic in the packaging chain is covered in the article on PPWR obligations for manufacturers, importers and distributors.

The practical consequence: count the numbers before you expand, not after the first listing suspension. A realistic “country x stream” matrix quickly has a dozen cells.

What an EPR number actually looks like

Formats are national and share no common syntax. The two most frequently requested in marketplace back ends look like this:

Germany, packaging — LUCID number. Format: DE plus 13 digits, for example DE1234567890123. Assigned by the LUCID packaging register run by the Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister (ZSVR). The number is public — the register has a search function, so partners can verify your entry and you can verify your suppliers’.

Germany, electronics — WEEE registration number. Format: DE plus 8 digits, for example DE12345678. Assigned by Stiftung EAR, which also handles battery registration. The WEEE number must be shown in offers and on commercial documents; it is not an internal reference.

France, all streams — IDU (identifiant unique). Format: 13 characters, FR plus six digits (the former SYDEREP number), an underscore, a two-digit stream code and four random letters — for example FR123456_10ABCD. Issued by ADEME through the SYDEREP portal, one per stream. The IDU obligation stems from the AGEC law and has applied since 1 January 2022.

Other Member States issue numbers too, but names and formats differ: Poland has the BDO register number, Spain an entry in the producer register held by the environment ministry (MITECO), Italy sector registrations with a de facto requirement for a locally established entity, Austria registration in the EDM portal, and the Netherlands notification in the national system plus participation in Verpact. Do not assume a format from one country fits the same field in another.

A note on the United Kingdom

In UK search results “EPR” often means two different things: packaging extended producer responsibility under the UK’s own post-Brexit scheme, and the Environmental Permitting Regulations. Neither is covered by PPWR. If you sell into both the EU and the UK, treat them as separate regimes with separate registrations — an EU registration number carries no weight in the UK, and vice versa.

Country by country: where to register

The entry points below are the ones exporters meet most often. The list is indicative — the competent register depends on the stream and on whether you are established in the country.

Germany

Three parallel systems: LUCID (packaging, ZSVR) plus a mandatory contract with a dual system, Stiftung EAR (electrical equipment, WEEE), and battery registration also through EAR. Since 12 August 2026 German packaging law applies in its new form, linked to the PPWR — procedures and transitional deadlines are covered in the article on the LUCID packaging register. Without an entry there is a distribution ban, not merely a fine risk.

France

Everything runs through ADEME/SYDEREP, one IDU per stream. In France the number has the most “product-facing” character: it is requested in communication with compliance schemes, in marketplace terms, and alongside the Triman marking for products covered by the AGEC law.

Poland

BDO — the database on products, packaging and waste management. The BDO register number is public and must appear on commercial documents; a single register covers packaging, electrical equipment, batteries and other streams, divided into sections.

Spain, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands

Spain runs a producer register at the environment ministry and requires joining a collective scheme. Italy in practice requires a locally established entity for some streams — remote registration alone is not always sufficient. Austria works through the EDM portal and collective schemes. The Netherlands moved to Verpact as operator of the packaging scheme. Procedures, reporting calendars and fee calculations differ in each of these countries.

The rest of the EU

The principle holds: one register per state per stream. The larger operational risk is not the individual registration but the upkeep of a dozen entries: brand updates, changes to the packaging portfolio, annual declarations in different formats and on different deadlines.

What PPWR changed on 12 August 2026

Regulation (EU) 2025/40 does not create a single European number, but it does tidy up the packaging registers and close three gaps.

Article 44 — register of producers. Every Member State must run a register, and registration is a precondition for making packaging or packaged products available on its market. The obligation arises on first making available in that state — including where you unpack packaged products without being the end user. The information the application must contain is set out in Annex IX: producer details, brand names, contact details, identification code, trade register number and tax identification number, plus the representative’s details where one is appointed. The entry must be kept up to date.

Article 45 — EPR obligations and platforms. The producer registers in every country of sale, declares annually the quantities placed on the market broken down by material, and pays the financial contribution. What is new is the platform duty: operators that allow sellers to conclude contracts with consumers must verify, before enabling a seller, whether that seller is registered in the relevant national register and is meeting its EPR obligations.

Authorised representative for EPR. A producer making packaging available in a Member State where it is not established must appoint an authorised representative for extended producer responsibility in that state. Since 12 August 2026 the rule also bites on intra-EU sales — the point most often missed by companies reasoning “we are in the EU, so we don’t need a representative”.

Sector rules add their own registers: Directive 2012/19/EU (WEEE) for electrical equipment and Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 for batteries, where producer registration is likewise a precondition for placing products on the market.

Why the marketplace suspends your listing

For most sellers the first encounter with EPR numbers is a deactivated listing. The mechanism comes together across three layers of law.

  • National law. Germany requires platform operators to check the packaging register and the electrical equipment register before a seller offers goods subject to the obligation. That is why Amazon, eBay and Otto Market deactivate listings without a valid LUCID or WEEE number.
  • PPWR. Article 45 extends the “platform verifies registration” logic across the entire EU packaging market.
  • DSA. Article 30 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 requires platforms to collect and check trader identification data before allowing a trader to sell. The EPR register number is one of the data points requested in that process.

The practical consequence: the number must be entered in the seller back end for each destination country, not merely held. Suspensions usually stem from three things: the number filed under the wrong country field, expired scheme membership while the register entry is still active, or a company name that differs between the register and the seller account.

How to get an EPR number: six steps

1. Build the country x stream matrix

List the countries of first making available and the streams you actually place on the market: primary, grouped and transport packaging, electrical equipment, batteries (including built-in ones), textiles, furniture. A battery in an accessory box is its own stream, even if you do not sell batteries as a product.

2. Establish your role per market

Check who first makes the goods available in each market. Distance selling to consumers in another Member State almost always makes you the producer there. Selling to a distributor who places the goods on the market itself usually does not.

3. Decide on a representative

For every country where you have no establishment, determine whether you need an authorised representative for EPR, and appoint one separately per state. There is no single representative for the whole Union.

4. Register and store the number in a source system

Keep the register number in your product data system or ERP as an attribute tied to country and stream, not in a spreadsheet held by one person — ideally in the same place as the data behind your EU declaration of conformity.

5. Close the licensing loop

Registration without a scheme contract is a breach. Sign the contract per country and stream, and reconcile the declared quantities with what you report to the register.

6. Set an upkeep calendar

Annual declarations, updates when a brand or packaging type changes, evidence for marketplaces. An entry nobody maintains stops protecting you — and a gap between declared and actual quantities is one of the easiest things for an inspection to establish.

Where EPR numbers meet the digital product passport

The EPR register number and the digital product passport are two different obligations fed from one data set. EPR registration requires packaging weight and material composition broken down by material, brand data and identification data for the responsible actor. Exactly those fields reappear in the ESPR information requirements and in the PPWR declaration of conformity for packaging.

Companies that keep this data in one place pay for cleaning it up once and use it three times: for the EPR declaration, for compliance documentation and for the passport. Companies that keep it in per-country spreadsheets rebuild it with every new market. It is the same logic as in the article on DPP and PIM — the register number is simply one more market-dependent product attribute.

Common mistakes

  • Treating the number as company data rather than data per country and stream. A single “EPR” field in your ERP guarantees later chaos.
  • Stopping at registration. An entry without scheme membership looks correct in the register and protects against nothing.
  • Assuming an EU company needs no representative. Since 12 August 2026, for packaging what counts is the absence of an establishment in the Member State concerned, not the absence of one in the Union.
  • Overlooking built-in batteries and transport packaging. Both count, and both must be declared.
  • Declaring quantities from memory. The gap between declaration and reality is easy to prove and expensive.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a single EU-wide EPR number?

No. Registers are national, and PPWR Article 44 requires exactly that: every Member State runs its own producer register, and registration is a precondition for placing packaging on its territory. The PPWR harmonises the data set (Annex IX) and the procedures, but it does not create one European identifier.

What does an EPR number look like?

It depends on the country and the stream. The German LUCID number for packaging is DE plus 13 digits; the German WEEE number is DE plus 8 digits; the French IDU is 13 characters in the format FR123456_10ABCD. In Poland the equivalent is the BDO register number. There is no common format.

How many numbers do I need?

As many cells as your “country of first making available x waste stream placed on the market” matrix has. Electronics with batteries in packaging, sold into two countries, means six registrations, not one.

Is the number alone enough to sell?

No. The number is proof of registration. Separately you must join a collective scheme (licensing), pay contributions and file quantity declarations. Marketplaces now check both, not just whether an entry exists.

Does an EU company need an authorised representative?

For packaging, yes, if you make it available in a Member State where you are not established. Since 12 August 2026 the obligation also covers producers from other Member States, and the representative is appointed separately for each state.

Why did the marketplace suspend my listing even though I have a number?

Three typical causes: the number sits in the back end under the wrong country, scheme membership has expired while the register entry is still active, or the company name in the register differs from the one on the seller account. Platforms compare data; they do not merely check that a number is present.

Will myDPP handle the registration for me?

No. Registration is done by the producer or its authorised representative. myDPP organises the product and packaging data behind EPR declarations, compliance documentation and the digital product passport — and holds register numbers as attributes per country and stream. The implementation checklist shows how that works in practice.

Sources

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