How to fulfil your obligations in Austria

To comply with your obligations, Marketplace sellers have 3 main duties:

1. Announce an Authorized Representative: It’s mandatory for a marketplace seller, who is not based in Austria, to announce an Authorized Representative by January 1^st, 2023. The Authorized Representative Agreement needs to be certified by a notary or by some equivalent institution if allowed in the respective country of the marketplace seller. The Authorized Representative becomes liable with regards to the marketplace sellers Extended Producers Responsibilities and is allowed to sign a contract with a PRO in the name of the marketplace seller, see point 2. The Austrian Authority accepts the Authorized Representative registrations quarterly, the first time by October 1^st, 2022.

2. Join a PRO: The marketplace seller must join a PRO in order to legally dispense with its packaging. With our EASyShop flat fee solution we offer a reliable and legally secure one-stop shop for packaging compliance. Conclude your contract here. The flat fee solution includes 1.500 kg of household packaging and 1.500 kg of industrial packaging per calendar year. There is no quantity report needed.

3. Reporting: If the marketplace seller places more than 1.500kg of household packaging or more than 1.500kg industrial packaging per calendar year  onto  the market, he must  submit a quantity report .

What is the definition of ‘packaging’?

Household packaging is packaging having the following size:

• surface area up to and including 1.5 m²; or
• in the case of hollow bodies, a nominal filling volume up to and including 5 litres, or
• in the case of packaging made of expanded polystyrene (EPS – e.g. Styropor), a mass of up to and including up to 0.15 kg per sales unit

and usually occurs

• in private households or
• in places comparable to households with regard to the packaging generated.

Furthermore, service packaging, carrier bags and knotted bags shall in any case be deemed to be household packaging, irrespective of their size.

Packaging made of Paper, cardboard, paperboard and corrugated cardboard packaging that meets the definition of sales packaging shall, irrespective of their size, be deemed to be household packaging, irrespective of its size, provided that point 2 applies.

Industrial packaging is

• packaging that is not household packaging,
• paper packaging that meets the definition of transport packaging,
• pallets and strapping and adhesive tapes, and
• the proportion of packaging which in principle meets the definition of household packaging but which, by the packaging classification ordinance, is considered to be transport packaging.

Sales packaging or primary packaging is offered to the end consumer as a sales unit.

Outer packaging or secondary packaging – insofar as they do not fall under sales packaging or transport packaging – is packaging which

• contains one or more sales units which are sold together to the final consumer or serve only to stock the sales shelves, and
• can be removed without affecting the characteristics of the goods.

Transport packaging or tertiary packaging means packaging designed to facilitate the handling and transport of multiple sales units or outer packaging in order to avoid their direct contact or damage in transit. Containers for road, rail, ship and air transport are not included in the definition of transport packaging.

Shipping packaging for online sales is used to deliver goods to the end users (e.g. the shipping cartons, filling materials like bubble foil, etc.). Shipping packaging is always subject to registration and membership in a PRO. For shipping packaging, there are always direct obligations for marketplace sellers/online sellers selling to Austria.

PLEASE REMEMBER: In Austria, you must fulfil the obligation for all packaging put on the Austrian market. Therefore, the obligation is valid for all sales channels and is not limited to the goods sold via your Marketplace.