European regulatory fees
Understand how European regulatory fees may apply to your products.
Last updated
Understand how European regulatory fees may apply to your products.
Last updated
The European Commission (EC) has adopted several directives that govern the fair use and end-of-life handling of consumer electronic (CE) products. These directives aim to control the use of hazardous substances, reduce , and guarantee the right to duplicate copyright materials with reprography and storage devices.
The EC directives directly impact any business that produces, sells, resells, imports, or distributes consumer electronic products within the European Union (EU).
The regulations brought about by the concerns surrounding CE products can be divided into four categories: , , , and .
The following table shows the specific directives currently in place in the EU to address these concerns:
Recycling (WEEE)
Recycling (batteries)
Environmental
Environmental
Environmental
Environmental
Copyright
EC Directive concerns laws mandating the recycling of hardware and consumer electronics.
This directive aims to reduce WEEE by encouraging recycling and preventing it from ending up in landfills. It holds producers responsible for handling and recycling WEEE at the end of the product’s life.
Producers can charge product fees at the point of sale to fund these obligations. Most EU countries don't allow you to display the WEEE fee to the consumer, but it can be inclusive to the product. It's considered a cost of doing business (CODB), not a fee for the consumer.
Depending on the , fees may appear in the shopping carts on eCommerce sites.
It requires producers/importers that bring electrical and electronic equipment into a market to be responsible for disposing of and recycling these products at the end of their lifecycle.
Producers/importers must register with national authorities in the markets where they sell their CE products. Registration provides several benefits, such as the ability to participate in local recycling compliance schemes and access to standards for proper product labeling, product fee visibility, and point-of-sale communications on product recycling and disposal.
Depending on the jurisdiction, you must either integrate the WEEE fees into the product price (inclusive) or show them as a separate charge to the consumer (exclusive) when they view the shopping cart.
The directive states, "Users of electrical and electronic equipment from private households should have the possibility of returning WEEE at least free of charge." In this case, the distributor, not Digital River, is responsible for the takeback. For instance, when a customer purchases a new TV, the distributor is responsible for removing the old one.
Digital River reports the applicable sales volumes, product attributes, and reporting categories to the compliance agency. Digital River does not report the WEEE fee amounts. The compliance agency takes all the data sent by Digital River and then invoices us for the WEEE fees.
Producers/importers that collect WEEE must create a way for end-users to return waste equipment for recycling and/or disposal. Producers/importers that collect WEEE products are mandated to dispose of the waste ecologically or reuse/refurbish the waste. Digital River can fulfill that mandate by joining the compliance scheme.
This directive aims to control the metals and chemicals used in the production of batteries and to facilitate and fund the recycling and waste management of batteries. In summary, this directive bans certain metals and chemicals in batteries, limits the amount of other metals and chemicals in batteries, and calls for waste management of batteries that includes recycling and "take back" programs.
RoHS restricts the use of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP), Benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), _**_diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP), and a range of flame retardants notably polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) outlined by the WEEE directive.
Producers may not put electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) containing lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP), Benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) in amounts exceeding the established maximum concentration values on the EU market.
Producers must demonstrate compliance by submitting technical documentation or other information to the enforcement authority on request and retain such documentation for four years after the EEE is placed on the market.
The following summarizes the basic requirements and rules within the copyright directive:
The directive addresses reprography and private copying obligations impacting reproduction and digital storage devices. It "concerns the legal protection of copyright and related rights in the internal market framework, with particular emphasis on the information society."
Copyright holders must be compensated for the rights to duplicate their print and digital materials. Generally, such compensation is funded by manufacturers, distributors, or retailers collecting prescribed fees at the time of purchase. Depending on the laws of various countries, the manufacturer could collect a fee from the retailer, who could collect the fee from the consumer. Digital River is required to register with a copyright agency that handles copyright fees.
Digital River reports the sales volumes of applicable products and relevant product attribute data by number (such as pages per minute, printer pages per minute, and hard storage capacity), not the fees we collected for the copyright agency. The copyright agency, in turn, will invoice Digital River for the copyright levies.
Producers/importers are obligated to pay the fees. They may collect fees separately at the time of sale.
Some countries charge fees at the point of sale. Some common examples of products that require this fee are copiers, printers, MP3 players, and blank CD or DVD media.
Laws regarding battery manufacture and waste management were created in response to the EC Directive .
Laws regarding the use of certain substances in CE products were created in response to EC Directives , , , and .
These directives concern the in electronic and electrical equipment. They apply to manufacturers. The client must agree to comply if specified in the client's agreement with Digital River.
Laws regarding the sale and use of reprography and storage devices were created in response to EC Directive . The Information Society Directive, also known as the EU Copyright Directive (EUCD) or Information Society Directive (Infosoc), aims to limit the use of reprography and storage devices from infringing on copyrights.