COMPLYING WITH FRENCH PACKAGING LAW: DONE IN NO TIME!
If you sell products to French consumers, you’re required to comply with the French Packaging Act. Failure to do so could result in fines or the blocking of your Amazon, CDiscount or Ebay account. As such, it’s prohibited to sell in France without registration as well as correct packaging.
Why Amazonsellers?
✅ Application submitted within 24 hours
✅ Fair and transparent pricing
✅ Support before, during and after the application with clear instructions
✅ Direct contact with French Packaging authorities
✅ Many years of e-commerce experience
✅ All contact in English, we will talk French for you
WHEN DO I NEED TO REGISTER FOR THE FRENCH PACKAGING ACT?
You need to register in the national directory for packaging in France if you want to sell to French customers through, for example, amazon.fr, and if your products are packaged using materials like plastic or cardboard. In addition to registering, you’ll need to declare annually the amount of packaging you’ve sent to France. If you sell less than 10,000 products per year, you don’t have to specify how much packaging material was used. If this is the case, you’ll only pay €80 per year to a French recycling company.
WHAT IS THE FRENCH PACKAGING ACT?
The French Packaging Act, also known as Responsabilité Élargie du Producteur (REP), is an environmental law that ensures companies pay for the amount of consumer packaging they send to French customers. This includes plastic, paper, cardboard, aluminum, wood and glass. If your products are packaged using these materials, you are obliged to declare this annually in France, unless you sell less than 10,000 products a year. For companies who ship less, registration and an annual fixed payment of €80 to a French recycling company are sufficient. Please note that this legislation doesn’t concern the boxes that Amazon uses to package your products at Amazon FBA.
Shoeboxes and fancy packaging boxes also fall under the packaging law.
Plastic product packaging is the most common.
WHAT HAPPENS IF I DON’T HAVE A REP REGISTRATION?
In France, registration is mandatory: failing to register can result in fines. Amazon has also recently begun blocking unregistered accounts. This is not done for every account and Amazon doesn’t yet enforce it structurally. If your listing is blocked, you’ll still have to register with the national French directory, and you’ll lose valuable time during which you can’t make any sales.
AM I READY TO CONTINUE BUSINESS AFTER MY REGISTRATION?
Almost. At least you can ship products to French customers without risking fines. What you do still have to do is file an annual declaration stating the amount of packaging that was used for your products, unless you sell less than 10,000 products per year. If this is the case, all you have to do is place the Triman icon on your product packaging. We can file the declarations for you, but we do need your annual figures. This means that, from the moment of registration, you will need to keep track of how much packaging material you’ve sold in France. We can help to make this manageable.
HOW CAN I REGISTER WITH THE FRENCH PACKAGING ACT (REP)?
You can register with a recycling company in France. We can set this up for you whenever you’re ready. We will also submit an annual declaration to the waste management authority on your behalf (if you sell more than 10,000 products per year to French customers, that is).
WHY SHOULD I FILE PACKAGING DECLARATIONS THROUGH YOU?
Pretty much all entrepreneurs we speak to, think it’s important to be able to focus on the core of their business. In general, this doesn’t tend to include filing packaging declarations. We’re often told there’s a huge lack of clarity when it comes to what is required for the application, and that figuring it all out by yourself costs much more time and money than it saves. We send you annual reminders for your packaging waste declaration, so all you have to do is send us your figures and we file the declaration for you. It’s a piece of cake: you don’t have to spend much time on this and you don’t have to communicate in French. In addition, we can present a united front to the French waste management authority on behalf of all our affiliated entrepreneurs, so we can more easily bring to light any issues that arise for our customers.
WHAT IS THE COST OF APPLYING FOR A FRENCH PACKAGING ACT REGISTRATION AND ANNUAL DECLARATIONS?
We charge a rate of £ 179 for the first year and a rate of £ 139 for the following years.
This does not include subscription fees with a waste management company. These are around €80 per year. When you annually market over 10,000 products, you pay for each kilogram of packaging material.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO REGISTER WITH THE FRENCH PACKAGING DIRECTORY?
It takes around 1-2 weeks for your account to be registered.
WHAT DOES THE FRENCH PACKAGING ACT SERVICE INCLUDE?
✅ We will fill out all the forms you need to apply for a:
- Registration in the national register (ADEME)
- Registration with a waste management company
- Actively checking that the figures you provide are correct, so you never pay too much
- Annual declaration of the packaging quantity
✅ We also provide support in answering any questions from the French waste authorities. This way, you’re not on your own.
As a starting seller on Amazon, I was new to the world of e-commerce. At first, the fiscal side of it seemed like a huge fuss. Then I found Amazonsellers. Then it all started to make sense thanks to the expertise of the team which goes beyond knowledge on the VAT system, but also e-commerce in general. Thanks to the quick service and personal contact I would definitely recommend them.
Amazonsellers has helped us request a German VAT number for our Amazon business in a very professional fashion. The Amazonsellers team responded quickly and expertly to our questions. Are you looking for a company that can help you with your international Amazon ambitions? Then Amazonsellers is the place to be.
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