Packaging License
Austria
Find the best solution for:
Foreign Merchant?
Get the simple all-in-one solution from Landbell!
Since January 1, 2023, companies without their own headquarters in Austria must appoint an authorized representative in order to sell packaged products directly to private end consumers (e.g. via eBay, Amazon or their own online shop).
This process is very complex and involves a lot of bureaucratic effort. Our partner, the Landbell Group, is the only provider to offer you a complete online service including an affordable packaging license fee and authorization!
We recommend the all-in-one service of the Landbell Group: Licensing of your packaging + authorization from one source from 174,50€ per year. Concentrate on your core business – the Landbell Group as a reliable and competent partner takes care of your legal security and the notarial processing of your power of attorney in Austria.
In a nutshell: Who needs a packaging license in Austria?
Here we give you a quick overview of whether you are affected by the Packaging Ordinance in Austria, whether you need a packaging license and what other obligations you have to fulfill. Simply follow the links below, which will guide you to the appropriate company category. For each company category, you will find a detailed overview of the obligations and the best solution for implementing the legal requirements of the Packaging Ordinance quickly and easily.
Your company does not have a subsidiary or registered office in Austria:
- You ship packaged products and/or disposable plastic products directly to private end users in Austria (foreign B2C mail order company)
- You ship packaged products and/or disposable plastic products to other companies in Austria (foreign trader/manufacturer – B2B)
Your company is an Austrian company or has a subsidiary or registered office in Austria:
Foreign merchant (B2C)
Your company does not have a registered office or branch in Austria and you send packaged products or single-use plastic products directly to private end consumers in Austria.
🔎 Examples
Packaged products are sold to private households or household-like sources (e.g. restaurants, hotels, offices) via marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay and Co. or via an own online store. Product packaging and, if necessary, other shipping packaging are sent out to the customers.
📋 Duties
- Authorized representative: You need a so-called authorized representative. This person has the task of fulfilling all the obligations of the Packaging Ordinance and the Waste Management Act on your behalf. This includes the licensing/declaration of packaging and legally required quantity reporting. He is the first point of contact for authorities on all issues relating to the Packaging Ordinance.
- Packaging license: Your authorized representative must participate in a collection and recycling system for all packaging that is placed on the market in Austria by your company each year.
- Flat-rate solution: If the annual packaging quantities are less than 1500kg of household packaging and 1500kg of commercial packaging, a favorable flat-rate solution can be used for the license.
✏️ To do
- You have to appoint an authorized representative.
- Re recommend the easy online solution by ERP (Landbell Group)*. With this effortless solution, you can appoint the representative and get all duties done with just a few clicks – completely online.
Foreign company (B2B)
You do not ship packaged products, (service) packaging or disposable plastic products directly to private end consumers, but exclusively to other companies or retailers in Austria.
🔎 Examples
Shipping to Austrian companies such as retailers, manufacturing companies or other industrial companies. However, NO direct sales to private households or household-like accumulation points (e.g. gastronomy, hotels, offices).
📋 Duties
- An authorized representative can be appointed voluntarily if you wish to license packaging on behalf of your Austrian business partners and if you have a registered office in the EU (not Austria).
- You also do not need a packaging license because you do not sell to private end consumers. According to the law, the Austrian importer is always responsible for B2B transactions. You can voluntarily take over the packaging license for household packaging and/or commercial packaging for your Austrian partner as an upstream distribution level.
✏️ To do
Voluntarily, the packaging license can be concluded or an authorized representative can be appointed. As a rule, however, the Austrian business partner must take care of the licensing, as he is considered the primary obligor.
Austrian small company
You run your own business based in Austria and you put packaged products into circulation in Austria. The annual quantities of packaging put into circulation by your business activities amount to less than 1,500 kg of household packaging and 1,500 kg of commercial packaging.
🔎 Examples
- You manufacture service packaging or import such packaging to Austria.
- You manufacture packaged products or add packaging for the first time to the products, e.g. for shipping (manufacturer or packer according to law).
- You import packaged products from abroad to Austria.
- Self-importer – you consume imported, packaged goods and packaging waste is generated in the company.
📋 Duties
- You must buy a packaging license for all your packaging. To do that, you need to conclude a contract with a collection and recycling system (regardless of whether household or commercial packaging).
- Due to the small quantities, you can use a flat-rate solution. Then you do not have to declare quantities and various reporting obligations do not apply.
- As an alternative to the flat-rate solution, you can also chose the inexpensive packaging license from Reclay*. However, if you opt for this solution, you must provide a precise breakdown of your packaging quantities to Reclay in accordance with the Packaging Delimitation Ordinance.
✏️ To do
- For the flat-rate solution, we can recommend ERP*. Simply sign up online for 129.50 € per year and that’s it – you are all covered.
- A less expensive but more complex solution is the license from Reclay starting at 12 € per year*. Here you have to break down the annual packaging quantities exactly.
Austrian large enterprise
You have your own business located in Austria and put packaged products into circulation in Austria. The annual quantities of packaging put into circulation by your business activities exceed 1,500 kg of household and/or 1,500 kg of commercial packaging.
🔎 Examples
- You manufacture service packaging or import such packaging to Austria.
- You manufacture packaged products or add packaging for the first time to the products, e.g. for shipping (manufacturer or packer according to law).
- You import packaged products from abroad to Austria.
- Self-importer – you consume imported, packaged goods and packaging waste is generated in the company.
📋 Duties
- License obligation: You must buy a packaging license for all your packaging. To do that, you need to conclude a contract with a collection and recycling system (regardless of whether household or commercial packaging).
- A flat-rate solution may not be used due to exceeded quantity limits!
- Reporting obligation: depending on the expected annual fees for the packaging license, packaging quantities must be reported to the commissioned system:
- up to 1,500 Euro: yearly
- from 1,500 Euro up to 20,000 Euro: quarterly and
- over 20,000 Euro: monthly
- Final annual report: for the first time for the year 2022, a final annual report of packaging placed on the market + reusable packaging must be reported to the commissioned system by March 15 of the following year (1st report of 2022 to be submitted therefore by March 15, 2023).
✏️ To do
We recommend our free price calculator for the packaging license in Austria. Here you can compare the prices for your quantities at a glance.
Who needs a packaging license in Austria?
Like all EU-countries, Austria has established laws that regulate the recycling processes in the country with the aim to reduce packaging waste and increase recycling of packaging materials. All producers and merchants that put packaged goods on the Austrian market therefore need to contribute financially to the process of collecting and recycling those packaging materials. They pay a yearly fee to organizations that collect the packaging waste from households and other places for them and recycle it properly. Those organizations are called “collection and recycling system” in Austria. This fee is also called packaging license.
The legal basis in Austria is the Packaging Ordinance
In Austria, two laws significantly regulate the handling of packaging and its recycling. The Packaging Ordinance 2014 (VVO) and the Waste Management Act 2002 (AWG). These regulate which companies must take precautions to avoid packaging waste as far as possible and to collect, reuse or recycle unavoidable packaging waste.
Affected businesses according to the law
The law defines so-called “primary obligated parties” who must abide by the Packaging Ordinance. These are all companies that commercially circulate packaging in Austria and put packaged goods on the market. In contrast to the German Packaging Act, the Austrian is more general: It makes no exception as to whether the packaging waste ends up in households (B2C business) or in commercial operations (B2B business). Therefore, the following types of businesses are typically affected:
- Producers of packaged goods
- Importers
- (Online) vendors who sell goods to customers in Austria
- Sellers on online platforms and marketplaces (eBay, Amazon etc.)
- Packers/fillers
- Packaging distributors
What are the obligations of businesses that are affected by the packaging license in Austria?
The duties include licensing of packaging materials and reporting obligations. An important distinction is made between household packaging and commercial packaging. The law treats the two types of packing differently and therefore the duties regarding household packaging and commercial packaging differ slightly in Austria. Below, we provide the official definition for the two packing types and list all rules that businesses need to comply with.
- Packaging up to and including 1.5 m2/hollow body with a nominal volume of up to and including 5 liters or expanded polystyrene (EPS – e.g. Styrofoam) up to and including 0.15 kg, which accumulates in private households or in comparable places of waste, e.g. restaurants, hotels, hospitals, etc. (§ 13h AWG).
- Service packaging, e.g. carrier bags, knotted bags and sales packaging made of PPK and corrugated board (§ 3 Z. 7 VVO)
- Packaging that is not household packaging
- Transport packaging (§ 3 Z. 4 VVO)
- Tray foils, pallets as well as strapping and adhesive tapes
- Packaging that is household packaging but is to be exempted from obligations as commercial packaging due to the quota in the Ver-packungsabgrenzungsV (observe product groups).
Primary obligated parties must fulfill the following obligations. It is possible that an upstream distribution stage assumes these obligations for certain packaging quantities. In this case, this must be verifiable. For example, by a clear note on invoice & delivery documents or in the contract.
- Participation in a collection and recycling system (dual system) and licensing of the annual quantities that are put on the Austrian market.
- Reporting of the final quantities put into circulation in the previous year by March 15 of the following year. Usually, the commissioned collection and recycling system provides support for those reporting duties.
- Depending on the annual quantity, monthly or quarterly quantity reports may be necessary.
- Foreign merchants that directly sell to private customers need to appoint an authorized representative.
For commercial packaging, participation in a collection and recycling system is not yet mandatory. However, this will change from 1.1.2023. Until then, companies can still implement their own solution without the help of a system and organize collection and recycling of their packaging material on their own.
The duties for commercial packaging include:
- Obligation to take back B2B-packaging free of charge (with the exception of deliveries to major accumulation points).
- Obligation to return the packaging to the upstream take-back obligor by the end of the following calendar year at the latest. Alternatively, reuse or appropriate recovery on one’s own initiative is possible.
- Obligation to keep records and to report the quantities of packaging handed in for suppliers at major collection points (Annex 3 old).
- Obligation to record and report commercial packaging placed on the market, broken down by packaging material, by March 31 for the previous calendar year.
- Obligation to provide information to subsequent distribution stages (distributors and primary obligated parties)
- Recording and reporting obligation of the primary obligated party on packaging delivered to major accumulation points (Annex 3 old).
- Information obligation in the form of a legally binding declaration in the case of participation by upstream or downstream distribution stages of the primary obligated party
- Reporting obligation for packaging for which there is no participation in a collection and recovery system (Annex 3 old).
- Possible complementary licensing to 100% (§ 10 para. 7) is only possible for the last time for the calendar year 2022 (deadline: 31 March 2023).
- Annual obligation to report data pursuant to § 13 (3a) by March 15 for the previous calendar year. Unless a flat-rate solution is used.
In 2022, for the last time, the small-scale distributor rule for commercial packaging can be used. A producer can invoke the small-scale distributor status if his total annual turnover in Austria is below €730,000 and if certain thresholds for commercial packaging quantities are not exceeded (e.g. max 300 kg paper/cardboard/cardboard, max 100 kg plastic per year). The full requirements for the small-scale distributor role can be found on this info page from the Austrian Chamber of Commerce. The small-scale distributor status grants relief from all obligations mentioned above. Companies that invoke this status only have to properly dispose of the packaging at the request of their customers. The small dispenser regulation expires on 31.12.2022! After that date, participation in a collection and recovery system is mandatory for all commercial packaging.
Simple flat rate solution for small businesses
Companies that place only small quantities of packaging on the market in Austria each year can use simple flat-rate solutions and thus fulfill all obligations under the law without much effort. To do this, they conclude a license agreement with a collection system with a flat-rate solution. In return, they receive their EPR number and confirmation from the provider that all their duties will be fulfilled by the collection system. This also includes reporting obligations. The manufacturer/distributor has thus fulfilled all obligations according to the law and does not need to arrange anything further.
Prerequisite for the flat-rate solution: Less than 1.500kg of household packaging and 1.500kg of commercial packaging is put into circulation annually.
Recommendation for small Austrian businesses:
cheap and easy all-inclusive packaging license by Reclay from 12€ per year
While the annual flat rate for other collection systems in Austria is usually between €120 and €150, Reclay offers a very favorable flat rate solution starting at €12 per year.
We therefore recommend Reclay to all small manufacturers and (online) retailers who circulate packaging material in Austria. The license from Reclay is completely digital and can be concluded in just 3 minutes via their online store “activate – by Reclay”.
*If a deal is concluded with a provider via a marked partner link, we receive a commission. The license price at the respective provider does not increase and there are no further costs.
