For fear of imminent sales bans, foreign online retailers from China or the USA, for example, will for the first time contribute in large numbers to the costs of disposal and recycling of their packaging in Germany. Before the tightening of the packaging law, which will come into effect on July 1, around 3,500 companies are registering in the packaging register every day, as its board member Gunda Rachut reported on Thursday. “I believe that the curve will go up significantly again in the next four weeks.” According to the lawyer, online retailers from China and the USA are very well represented.
Since 1993, companies in Germany have been obliged to “participate in the system” in the disposal and recycling of packaging, which involves additional costs, as the Green Dot and other companies do. For foreign importers, this obligation was rather theoretical for years, since many retailers did not register themselves and their packaging in Germany.
With the rapid growth of online trade, this led to increasing complaints from domestic companies because foreign traders saved themselves the costs. How many online retailers from Germany and abroad sell goods in Germany is unknown. The packaging register assumes several hundred thousand. According to Rachut, around 366,000 companies have been registered so far. A good third of them registered this year.
Anyone who has not registered in the public packaging register “Lucid” by July 1st is no longer allowed to sell. The large marketplaces such as Amazon and Ebay will have to block unregistered traders in the future. That’s why the corporations are urging the sellers working there to register. “The platforms make money from their dealers. They have no interest in closing the shops,” said Rachut. The amendment to the packaging law is aimed not only at foreign mail order companies, but also at domestic companies, which have so far often avoided “system participation”. All companies that sell and package take-away goods must also register. These include bakers and butchers as well as French fries and bratwurst stands, flower shops and pharmacies that fill ointment in plastic cans.