What is the difference between EPR registration and reporting?

Registration is a one-time process to obtain your EPR number before you start selling. Reporting is a recurring obligation to declare the exact weight and material of the packaging you placed on the market during a specific period.

Do small e-commerce sellers have different reporting deadlines?

Yes. In many countries, your sales volume dictates your reporting cadence. Smaller sellers often report annually, while larger operations must submit data quarterly or even monthly.

What happens if I miss a packaging declaration deadline?

Missing a deadline can trigger administrative fines, retroactive fee assessments, and the suspension of your product listings on major online marketplaces.

When is the German LUCID annual report due?

Germany has no single national date for the routine report. You report your quantities to LUCID and to your dual system at the cadence your dual system contract sets, which can be annual, quarterly or monthly. The 15 May deadline applies to the audited Declaration of Completeness, which is only triggered above roughly 80,000 kg glass, 50,000 kg paper and board, or 30,000 kg other materials per year.

EPR Deadlines Reporting

EPR Reporting Deadlines 2026: Every Packaging Due Date, Country by Country

A complete guide to 2026 EPR reporting deadlines for packaging across Europe, including cadence changes by volume and the risks of missing your dates.

By Anton Kröger23 July 20266 min read

A wall calendar with red pins marking dates and the 30th circled in red

If you ship physical products to EU customers, you already know who needs to register for EPR. Getting your registration numbers is only the first step. Staying compliant means tracking and submitting recurring data declarations across multiple countries, each with its own schedule and portal. Missing these dates leads to heavy fines and suspended marketplace listings. Here is your definitive calendar for 2026 to ensure you never miss a filing.

Key takeaways

Annual vs recurring: Most countries require an annual reconciliation report, but your specific sales volume often forces you to report data quarterly or monthly.
Previous year data: Annual declarations are always retrospective. A deadline in early 2026 requires you to report the packaging you shipped throughout 2025.
Marketplace enforcement: Online platforms monitor your compliance status and will block your sales if your reporting lapses.

Registration vs declaration: Understanding the timeline

The packaging compliance lifecycle consists of 2 distinct phases. Registration is a strict pre-market requirement. You must complete this one-time setup to obtain your EPR number before you ship a single unit to a customer in that country.

Reporting, or declaration, is the recurring process of proving exactly what you shipped. This involves breaking down your shipments by material, weight, and recyclability tier, then submitting those figures to your Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) or national authority. The data you submit directly determines how your EPR fees are calculated for your business.

EPR packaging deadlines 2026: The country table

Below is a reference guide for the primary annual reporting deadlines across major European markets. Keep in mind that your PRO may set earlier internal deadlines to process your data before submitting it to the national authority on your behalf.

Country	Register/authority or PRO	Reporting cadence	Annual declaration due date
Germany	ZSVR (LUCID) and dual systems	Annual, quarterly or monthly to your dual system	No fixed national date for the routine report; 15 May for the audited Declaration of Completeness, above the volume thresholds
France	ADEME (SYDEREP) and Citeo	Annual	28 February, in a window that opens 1 January
Sweden	Naturvårdsverket and NPA or TMR	Quarterly or monthly to your PRO	31 March
United Kingdom	Environment Agency (pEPR)	Annual or bi-annual	1 April
Netherlands	Verpact	Annual	1 April
Spain	MITECO and Ecoembes	Annual	Varies by scheme

Two rows in that table catch people out, so they are worth spelling out.

Germany's 15 May is not the deadline most sellers think it is. It is the date for the audited Declaration of Completeness (Vollständigkeitserklärung), which is only triggered once you pass the volume thresholds of roughly 80,000 kg glass, 50,000 kg paper and board, or 30,000 kg other materials in a year. If you are below those lines, you still have to report your quantities to both the LUCID packaging register and your dual system, at the cadence your dual system contract sets, but 15 May is not your date. Reporting nothing because you were watching the wrong deadline is the failure mode here.

The Netherlands has two dates and only one of them is yours. Your own declaration goes to Verpact before 1 April for the previous calendar year. The 1 August date you may see quoted is when Verpact files its collective report onward to the regulator, ILT, which is not a deadline you act on.

How volume thresholds change your reporting cadence

While the table above highlights the final annual deadlines, your specific reporting frequency is usually dictated by the volume of packaging you place on the market. High-volume sellers are subjected to tighter, more frequent reporting windows.

In Sweden, companies with packaging fees under 120,000 SEK per calendar year are required to report quarterly, with submissions due by the 25th of April, July, October, and January. However, if your fees exceed 120,000 SEK, you must report monthly, submitting data by the 25th of the following month. Finally, the Swedish annual reconciliation report to the EPA is due by 31 March for the preceding year.

The United Kingdom operates a similar tiered approach. Under the UK guidance for small packaging producers, an organisation generating between 25 and 50 tonnes of packaging with a turnover above 1 million GBP must report annually by 1 April. Large producers exceeding 50 tonnes and a 2 million GBP turnover face a bi-annual cadence, reporting between July and October, and again between January and April.

Understanding your size classification is critical to knowing when to collect packaging data from your orders.

Tired of tracking a dozen portals by hand? See how Gram keeps your filings on schedule.

The true cost of missing a reporting deadline

Environmental authorities do not treat reporting deadlines as mere administrative suggestions. The financial and operational penalties for missing a declaration date can cripple an e-commerce business.

In Germany, the fine depends on which duty you breached. Under § 36 of the German Packaging Act, failing to register or filing an incomplete data report at the LUCID packaging register is an administrative offence carrying a fine of up to €100,000, while failing to participate in a dual system at all sits in the top tier at up to €200,000. France applies penalties that scale up to €7,500 per tonne of undeclared packaging. In Sweden, authorities issue an environmental sanction fee of 10,000 SEK specifically for the late submission of the mandatory annual packaging report, and they can retroactively assess unpaid fees using punitive estimations.

Missing a reporting deadline does not just mean a late fee; environmental authorities actively enforce retroactive assessments, and marketplaces will suspend your listings until you prove compliance.

Beyond state fines, e-commerce platforms actively enforce these dates. If your reporting lapses and your registration is flagged as inactive, EPR rules for Amazon sellers dictate that the marketplace must deactivate your non-compliant listings to protect themselves from shared liability.

Building a unified internal calendar

Managing compliance across borders requires extracting raw order data, mapping it to material codes, and converting it into the specific formats demanded by each national portal. If you sell in 4 different European countries, you are not managing 4 deadlines; factoring in quarterly requirements, you might be managing up to 16 separate filing dates.

To maintain control, align your data extraction process with your most frequent reporting requirement. If Sweden requires quarterly reports, extract and format your data for all countries at the end of each quarter. This keeps your records audit-ready and prevents a massive backlog of raw data from piling up ahead of the busy spring deadline season.

Get started with Gram to turn your e-commerce orders into filing-ready reports for every country, ensuring you hit every deadline without the spreadsheet anxiety.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between EPR registration and reporting?: Registration is a one-time process to obtain your EPR number before you start selling. Reporting is a recurring obligation to declare the exact weight and material of the packaging you placed on the market during a specific period.
Do small e-commerce sellers have different reporting deadlines?: Yes. In many countries, your sales volume dictates your reporting cadence. Smaller sellers often report annually, while larger operations must submit data quarterly or even monthly.
What happens if I miss a packaging declaration deadline?: Missing a deadline can trigger administrative fines, retroactive fee assessments, and the suspension of your product listings on major online marketplaces.
When is the German LUCID annual report due?: Germany has no single national date for the routine report. You report your quantities to LUCID and to your dual system at the cadence your dual system contract sets, which can be annual, quarterly or monthly. The 15 May deadline applies to the audited Declaration of Completeness, which is only triggered above roughly 80,000 kg glass, 50,000 kg paper and board, or 30,000 kg other materials per year.

Updated 25 July 2026