Organising your producer responsibility

Which scheme suits your business?

When you are to decide which form of organisation to choose for your business in view of assuming the producer responsibility most expediently, you should investigate a number of issues that may have an economic and practical impact on your business:

1. End-user segment: Are your products manufactured or imported for use in households or similar, or for professional use?
2. Quantities sold: How much (in kilograms) do you sell in Denmark on an annual basis?
3. Type of sale: Are you established in Denmark, or do you deal in online sale to end-users without establishment in the recipient country?

Individual or collective compliance

A collective compliance scheme is a private, commercial business offering against payment to the affected business the service of assuming some of the administrative and practical tasks associated with the producer responsibility. However, the overall responsibility stays with the business subject to producer responsibility.

Collective schemes are businesses operating on a competitive market. The schemes are organised in different ways and have different focus on types of businesses (customers), products, and models of payment.

Whether you choose to become a member of a collective scheme or not, you must assume certain issues relating to registration and reporting yourselves.

Collective schemes

Typically, a collective scheme will offer to assume the following practical tasks in whole or in part:

Authorised Representative

The requirement for an Authorised Representative (AR) was introduced with the WEEE Directive recast in 2012. The provision was implemented in 2014 as an obligation for electronics manufacturers in EU Member States selling directly to end-users in Denmark eg. by internet sales.

If your business in the EU is not established in Denmark but deals distance selling, for instance internet trade, directly to end-users in Denmark you must assume your producer responsibility by designating an authorised representative (AR) in Denmark. If your business has an authorised representative, you can have this representative assume the interests of your business in relation to selection of a compliance scheme or choice of individual solutions.

An AR is a legal entity established in Denmark, with a Danish CVR number, and designated by one or several foreign businesses in the EU to assume their producer responsibility in Denmark

Difference between collective scheme and authorised representative

The authorised representative has the full legal responsibility towards the authority on behalf of the producer, while a collective scheme is a company offering to producers to carry out various practical tasks, including collection and recovery – with the purpose of benefiting from economies of scale.

However, both compliance schemes – individual or collective – have this registration option through a function in the producer register.

Link up to collective scheme

First inspect and contact the various collective schemes to find the scheme that best suits your company. When you have found the collective scheme you want to cooperate with, you can proceed as follows:

1. Ask the collective scheme to establish your registration at DPA
   OR
2. Log into the producer register  and choose menu item: “Category selection and reporting” and ”collective schemes”. Off every category you choose the relevant collective scheme in the drop-down list. Click Save.

If you and the scheme have an agreement the collective scheme will accept. When the collective scheme accepts the request, the official link to the compliance scheme has been established and can be searched out in the public part of the register.

Establish new collective scheme

In principle, anybody can establish a collective compliance scheme. In addition to compliance with the requirements of the Statutory Order for collective schemes, such scheme must be registered with DPA with its name, CVR/VAT number, contact information, and a website. And at least two complying members.

Individual compliers

As a producer or an importer, you may choose to assume the tasks under the producer responsibility yourself. Producers and importers not affiliated to a collective scheme are called “individual compliers or schemes”.

It makes a difference whether you sell products for professional use or if the products you sell on the Danish market are for use in private households.

See Allocation for household products

By far, most producers/importers assuming their producer responsibility individually sell equipment manufactured for professional use.

Quantities subject to transfer of responsibility means that producers having only professional end-users may transfer their responsibility for take-back and environmental treatment of end-of-life equipment to their customers. It is not possible for producers to transfer the producer responsibility in itself.

Both collective scheme and individual complier

A producer may choose to cooperate with a compliance scheme and still be an individual complier depending on the kind of end-user his equipment is intended for (households and businesses, respectively).

It is also possible to be affiliated to several compliance schemes at the same time – distributed on the different categories of electronics, batteries and accumulators, and vehicles. However, this does not apply to the same category/end-user.