Free rider quantities
Read more about what free rider quantities are, what you need to do to report them correctly, and how they affect our fee structure.
What are free rider quantities?
Free rider quantities are products that you previously put on the market in Denmark without being registered in the Danish producer register.
If you have not reported quantities put on the market for previous years, you must report these quantities as free rider quantities to comply with the rules on producer responsibility.
See examples of when something is, or is not, considered free rider quantities:
If you register for the first time this year but were subject to producer responsibility the year before, you are required to report the quantities from the previous year as free rider quantities.
If you register for the first time in the middle of a year, you must enter your expected quantities for the entire year.
Example:
You register on 20 November.
You must enter your expected quantities for the entire year, not only for November and December. Therefore free rider quantities do not need to be reported for January to November.
If you have already had producer responsibility but did not register for a category or product area before the reporting period opened, the registration is considered late.
That means you are required to report the missing quantities as free rider quantities in the following reporting period.
How to report free rider quantities
You can report free rider quantities for up to five years prior to the current year.
Free rider quantities are exclusively quantities put on the market. This means that you cannot report collected, transferred, or treated quantities as free rider quantities.
In the Danish producer register, under the menu item “Free rider”, you will find an overview of previous reporting periods. When a reporting period is open, you can also open earlier reports and begin a free rider submission.
You can only report free rider quantities that have not already been reported for the relevant reporting period. This means that:
- you can report only once per category and end user per year
- it is not possible to correct or supplement an already reported category via free rider reporting.
However, you can report free rider quantities for:
- other categories that have not previously been reported
- another end user that has not previously been reported
- earlier years within the five-year limit.
Please note:
- For batteries, only your collective scheme can report free rider quantities for portable batteries and batteries for light means of transport (LMT).
- You cannot make corrections to free rider quantities.
- Reporting free rider quantities is not the same as being registered. If you need to be registered for the product area, category, or end user, you must remember to update your registration.
How do free rider quantities affect your fee?
When you report free rider quantities, they are included in your next fee invoice. The fee for free rider quantities is linked to the year in which the quantities were put on the market. This means that all producers pay the same fee rate, regardless of whether they reported their quantities on time or too late. Before we calculate the total financial requirement for the year, we deduct the revenue from free rider quantities, which benefits all producers.