Possible obligated parties
Who is producer, or respectively those who count as producer, is defined in § 3 number 9 .
Producer is
- the producer, meaning the person who produces electrical or electronic equipment under his name, or own brand, or has them designed or produced and offers them under his name or brand in Germany (§ 3 number 9a) aa) and bb) ElektroG).
- a person who offers electrical and electronic equipment from other producers under his own name or brand in Germany, or resells these commercially. Thereby the supplier or reseller is not regarded as the producer if the name or brand of the producer according to § 3 Number 9 a) ElektroG appears on the electrical and electronic equipment (see § 3 number 9 b) ElektroG).
- whoever offers electrical and electronic equipment that does not originate from Germany – but from a third country or another EU member state – for the first time on the German market (§ 3 number 9 c) ElektroG) within a commercial operation. That is why an importer can be producer according to ElektroG.
- whoever offers electrical and electronic equipment by means of distance communication directly to end users and is not situated in Germany (§ 3 number 9 d) ElektroG).
Equal to a producer according to ElektroG are those who as distributor culpably (intentionally or negligently) offer electrical and electronic equipment for sale that are from non - or not correctly registered producers or from foreign producers whose authorised representatives are not or not correctly registered (§ 3 number 9 d) clause 2 ElektroG).
Special producer constellations
A producer whose products cannot be traced to them as the actual producer, is not a producer according to ElektroG (i.e. Original Equipment Manufacturer – OEM). Producer according to ElektroG is rather this producer’s customer who labels their own brand on the product, or respectively, has the product designed and produced in their name.
A promotional product supplier can be a producer with a registration obligation if he
- produces electrical and electronic equipment himself and labels these with his own brand name (§ 3 number 9 a) ElektroG).
If the promotional product supplier produces electrical and electronic equipment himself, but labels them exclusively with the customer’s brand, the supplier is not obliged to register. This is also valid if he exclusively designs or produces the electrical and electronic equipment for the customer. In this case the customer himself is the producer obliged to register (see § 3 Number 9 a) ElektroG). - imports electrical and electronic equipment – regardless whichever brand – to Germany without the supplier having appointed an authorised representative according to § 8 ElektroG and this authorised representative is not registered correctly (§ 3 number 9 c) in combination with § 8 paragraph 4 clause 5 ElektroG).
Even assembler, companies that only assemble the electrical and electronic equipment (i.e. computers) with different components, can be a producer according to ElektroG. If the assembler uses components for which the producer is registered in Germany, then the appropriate label on the components must be retained during assembly. Read more information on the consequences for the amount report here.
Producers who are located abroad are in principle also obliged to register. But they can only be registered in Germany if they have a branch in Germany. If the producer does not have a branch in Germany, they must appoint an authorised representative who is responsible for fulfilling the legal obligations of that producer.