The Environment Agency are making changes to their approach in regulating the Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013 (as amended). These changes will come into effect for the 2025 compliance year and has been agreed by all UK environment agencies.
In some cases, legal entities established outside the UK who only sell indirectly have previously been allowed to register voluntarily as EEE producers and finance the obligation instead of the UK-based importer or distributor. This will no longer be possible because such organisations do not meet the definition of producer set out in the UK WEEE Regulations.
The agency has decided that legal entities who are not established in the UK and who place EEE on the UK market via indirect selling only will no longer be classed as producers of EEE in the UK. Instead, the first legal entity to place the EEE on the UK market who is also established in the UK will need to register as a producer, report the EEE and finance the obligation for these products.
Established in the UK means that a legal entity has some degree of physical presence in the UK, such as a place of business or branch, where it carries out business. Typically, this would mean that all non-UK companies who are established in the UK are registered with Companies House and have a Foreign Company (FC) number and a Branch (BR) number for each UK establishment.
For all our existing clients selling indirectly via/to UK distributors and dealers that means their WEEE registrations have to be cancelled at the end of 2025 and their clients have to register and report for their WEEE volumes on their own.
For all our existing clients selling directly to end users in the UK (both professional or household) nothing will change.
If you have any questions on packaging, WEEE or battery compliance in the UK please do not hesitate to contact the Go4Recycling team.