An EU directive is not law on the national level until a directive is transposed in national legislation. This is also the case for the WEEE directive. Transposition however entails interpretations by national authorities and thus differences between national WEEE legislations throughout Europe. Here the trouble starts.

In the transposition process the original producer responsibility from the EU directive has shifted towards an importer responsibility. The entity responsible for WEEE has, in many countries, been defined as ‘the entity that first puts the goods on the market’. This has serious implications for the producers WEEE obligations.

Depending on the market you are selling in (consumer, ‘b2c’ or professional, ‘b2b’), two main solutions to fulfill your obligations can be identified.

The first is joining a so-called collective scheme. A collective scheme is often a branch-created collectivity, but can also be a private initiative of a logistical company or recycler. This collective scheme will, on your behalf, take care of registration, take-back and recycling and reporting to the government. The producer needs to report its sales volume on a regular basis to the collective scheme. In most cases, the producer also needs to pay a membership fee to the scheme and a recycling fee per product put on the market.

The second option is to set-up an individual scheme. In this case the producer fulfills all legal requirements individually.

On the b2c market an individual scheme is almost impossible to set-up. National legislations require a financial guarantee for products put on the market. In practice, arranging such a guarantee entails a lot of costs and hassle for an individual producer, while collective schemes in most countries also provide these guarantees. Furthermore, if the producer opts for an individual scheme, he need to arrange for nationwide certified collection points, transport and treatment in which need to be approved on by the legislator. In general: a b2c producer is better of joining a collective scheme.

A b2b producer on the other hand, will in most cases have more options regarding take-back. There is no guarantee requirement on the b2b market and this leaves open the option of arranging take-back individually. An individual solution however requires more effort from the producer. On the other hand this option will in most cases be more cheap than joining a collective scheme.

In some countries though, joining a collective b2b scheme is obligatory, while in other countries only an individual option is available.

The reporting obligation has been included in national legislations as well. A producer is obliged to report its sales and recycling efforts to the authorities in each EU country it is trading in. The frequency of reporting depends on the country and market the producer is selling in (B2B vs. B2C).
Reporting is normally done in either kilograms or pieces or both. The producer thus needs to keep track of these product-specific data in its books.

The EU directive and most national legislations, contain a provision in which the producer is allowed or even obliged, to show the costs of take-back and recycling to the end-user. This is called a ‘visible fee’. This visible fee is primarily used on the B2C market. It is not common on the B2B market. The fee is usually shown on the invoice to the client and is also displayed by the retailer.
The producer thus needs to create a separate line on the invoice.

Due to the fact that the EU directive has been transposed into national legislation, the official language has often been changed into the national language. This might be troublesome when trying to file a report or acquire data or information from the authorities or collective schemes.