Registration procedure
Before you may place electrical and electronic equipment on the market as a producer in Germany, you or in case of authorised representation according to § 8 your authorised representative, must be registered at stiftung ear with the respective brand and type of equipment.
The registration procedure is subject to public law and only begins on submission of the registration application. Registration applications are checked according to the order they were received. It is not possible to ‘bring forward’ applications. Only after a registration application has been submitted is it possible to start the process.
Registration with brand and type of equipment
Registration is carried out with a brand and a type of equipment (§ 6 paragraph 1 clause 1, § 37 clause 1 ElektroG). The brand is the decisive characteristic with which electrical and electronic equipment can be allocated to a producer. Should your company wish to be registered with several brands, or respectively place electrical and electronic equipment of several brands on the market, then registration for each brand and type of equipment must be applied for.
The brand need not be a registered brand according to trademark laws. You can use the company name, for example, if there is no registered brand. It is not permissible to register with names such as ‘no brand’, ‘no name’, pure type designations, device descriptions (i.e. ‘measuring device’, ‘Sudoku’, ‘calculator’, ‘USB stick’) or with the registration number (WEEE-Reg.No.DE).
The brand stated in the registration procedure must be on the electrical and electronic equipment itself according to § 9 ElektroG.
6 categories have been determined in § 2 paragraph 1 ElektroG for electrical and electronic equipment that are within ElektroG’s scope these are furthermore divided into 17 types of equipment.
You can find more detailed information on the categories and types of equipment here.
Registration application in the ear-portal
You apply for registration online via the ear-portal. After submitting the companies data, the legal representatives and the invoice address, you apply for the registration at ACTIVITIES, registrations.
On application you must state the brand and the type of the equipment that your company would like to place on the market. You can find out which types of equipment there are and information on how to allocate your company’s electrical and electronic equipment correctly here.
- Should you not be able to unambiguously determine the type of equipment yourself, you should upload exemplary pictures and a description of the equipment. Then stiftung ear will check whether the shown electrical and electronic equipment are to be allocated to the type of equipment you applied for.
- If you are sure about the type of equipment on application, you need send neither pictures nor a description of the equipment.
Should your company place electrical and electronic equipment on the market that can be used in private households (b2c-equipment), you must also prove a so-called insolvency safe guarantee. Without an insolvency safe guarantee you can only store your registration application in the ear-portal. If unfinished registration applications are not completed within 6 weeks they are deleted.
- You can find detailed information how this proof of guarantee can be submitted here.
Should your company place electrical and electronic equipment on the market that is exclusively used in other than private households, or that is generally not used in private households, you must substantiate that. Additionally you have to record a take-back concept for the disposal of this waste equipment.
- You can find detailed information on the prima facie evidence and the take-back concept at.
Application to register an authorised representative is also submitted via the ear-portal. You have to state on application that the opening of the account is as an authorised representative and submit not only the details of the authorised representative, but also the producer’s name and contact details. The authorised representative must be named and the appointment of such as a basis for the registration of the authorised representative must be uploaded into the ear-portal.
You can see the status of the procedure in the ear-portal at any time. Therefore you will not receive any additional receipt confirming your registration application.
Registration order
Should all registration preconditions be fulfilled, the applying producer/authorised representative will receive a registration order and will be published as a producer, or respectively authorised representative of the represented producer with the brand and type of equipment in the list of registered producers and authorised representatives. With this registration order you will also receive the registration number (WEEE-Reg.-No. DE), which will also be published in the list of registered producers.
As a producer you must state the registration number when offering the product and on invoices (§ 6 paragraph 3 ElektroG). It can be appropriate to put the registration number on further documents, such as order confirmation, delivery slip, advertising material and website, too.
If you, as a foreign producer, have named an authorised representative, you must state the registration number of your named authorised representative.
The registration order is the ‘permission’ to place electrical and electronic equipment of the therein stated brand and type of equipment on the market in Germany. Therefore the registration number in the order starts with ‘DE’. If you are selling electrical and electronic equipment in other countries, you will find a list of the national registers for all EU member states at.
► Important: If you also place batteries on the market in Germany, a separate registration must be applied for. Further information on this topic can be found here.