How EPR for electronics and batteries works in the EU, India and Africa, from producer status and registration to fees and audit, and what it means in the GCC.
Introduction
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for electronics and batteries is mature in Europe, India and parts of Africa, and it is forming in the GCC. Saudi Arabia wrote it into its 2021 Waste Management Law, and the UAE already requires suppliers to take back e-waste and batteries while a wider framework is piloted (see the GCC comparison).
The established regimes differ in detail but follow the same sequence. Understanding that sequence matters for two groups in the Gulf: exporters and brand owners already selling into those markets, who carry the duties there today, and producers and importers at home, whose national schemes will draw on the same model.
1. Establish who is the producer
Every regime defines the producer by role, not by who manufactured the item:
- EU (WEEE Directive 2012/19/EU and Batteries Regulation (EU) 2023/1542): a manufacturer selling under its own brand, a rebrander, an importer, or a distance seller in another country selling direct to end users. Batteries built into appliances count, so an electronics importer is usually a battery producer too.
- India (E-Waste (Management) Rules 2022): anyone selling electronics under its own brand or offering imported electronics for sale, whatever the channel: dealer, retailer or e-retailer.
- South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria place the duty on brand owners and importers, and Kenya enforces it at the border.
Then classify each product into the regime’s categories: the six EU WEEE categories, battery category and chemistry, India’s item codes, South Africa’s size bands.
2. Register before selling
No registration, no sales. Producers register in each EU Member State they sell into, on India’s CPCB portal, with Kenya’s National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), on South Africa’s waste information system, and with Nigeria’s NESREA. Kenya adds an annual operating licence. In the EU, battery and packaging registrations must be granted within 12 weeks of a complete application, so registration has to come before market entry, not after.
3. Measure what was placed on the market
Obligations are calculated from quantities placed on the market, by weight and category, per country, per period. The EU WEEE collection target is 65% of the average weight placed on the market in the three preceding years. India sets each year’s target against what was sold in an earlier year, according to the product’s average life, so historical sales matter.
The placed-on-market dataset is where most producers are weakest, and where data errors turn into fees or penalties.
This needs a weight database for every product, split into product, battery and packaging, reconciled to sales and import records.
4. Choose how to meet the obligation
- Join a producer responsibility organisation (PRO). The PRO collects, contracts recyclers and reports; the producer pays fees. EU law lets Member States make membership mandatory for batteries and packaging.
- Run an individual scheme. It needs its own authorisation, collection network and financial guarantee.
- Buy recycling certificates (India). Producers buy EPR certificates generated by registered recyclers on the CPCB portal. The responsibility stays entirely with the producer even if a PRO helps.
Physical take-back sits on top in some regimes. Nigeria requires manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers to take back end-of-life equipment, and EU battery PROs must collect free of charge from every connected collection point.
5. Understand the fee
Fees are built from the net cost of collection, transport and treatment, less the value of recovered material, plus administration, awareness and reporting.
- South Africa: a differentiated rate per item category; eWASA publishes electronics fees of R1.50 to R3.60 per kilogram.
- India: certificate prices must sit between 30% and 100% of the environmental compensation for a missed target. CPCB’s 2024 guidelines put the floor at Rs 34 per kilogram for IT and telecom equipment and Rs 22 per kilogram for consumer electronics.
- Kenya: a KShs 150 EPR fee at import, paid to NEMA, on top of PRO fees.
6. Eco-modulation: design changes that pay
Fees increasingly vary with environmental performance. The EU’s general rule asks for modulation by durability, reparability, recyclability and hazardous substances. For batteries, fees must vary at least by category and chemistry, taking account of rechargeability, recycled content and carbon footprint. For packaging, modulation by recyclability grade becomes mandatory under the Packaging Regulation (EU) 2025/40. Kenya and South Africa build recyclability into the fee as well.
The data that drives modulation, bill of materials, hazardous substances and recycled content, is the same data behind a product carbon footprint or an Environmental Product Declaration.
7. Report, prove and be audited
Reporting is annual or more frequent, and auditable:
- India: quarterly and annual returns on the portal, with environmental audit by CPCB
- EU packaging: annual data by 1 June for the previous year, open to independent audit where the Member State requires it
- Kenya: schemes report by 31 January each year
- Nigeria: the PRO reports to NESREA by 30 June
- South Africa: PROs file an annual independent external audit
8. Online and cross-border sales
The EU requires distance sellers to register in every Member State they ship to and, for batteries and packaging, to appoint an authorised representative in each. A Commission proposal of December 2025 would suspend that appointment duty until 2035 for sellers established in the EU; it is still in negotiation, so the duty applies. Online platforms must now check a packaging producer’s registration before letting it sell to EU consumers. India treats e-retailers selling imported electronics as producers, and Kenya refuses customs clearance without an EPR import certificate.
What this means for GCC companies
- Exporters and brand owners selling electronics or batteries into the EU, India or Africa are producers there now, often through marketplaces. Map every market reached, register, and appoint representatives where required.
- Producers and importers in the GCC should build the placed-on-market dataset now. It is the first thing every regime asks for, and the UAE and Saudi Arabia already have the legal hooks to require it.
- Product and packaging design decisions made now will set fees under eco-modulated schemes later.
How ESGweise helps
ESGweise helps producers, importers and exporters establish their producer status market by market, build the placed-on-market and material data that registration, fees and eco-modulation depend on, and bring EPR performance into sustainability reporting.
Sources
- Directive 2012/19/EU on waste electrical and electronic equipment, consolidated text of 8 April 2024, including Directive (EU) 2024/884
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 on batteries and waste batteries, consolidated text of 13 August 2026
- Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste
- European Commission proposals COM(2025) 982 and COM(2025) 983, December 2025
- India, E-Waste (Management) Rules 2022 as amended, and CPCB EPR portal guidance on certificate prices (2024)
- Kenya, Sustainable Waste Management (Extended Producer Responsibility) Regulations 2024, Legal Notice 176 of 2024
- Nigeria, National Environmental (Electrical/Electronic Sector) Regulations, S.I. 79 of 2022
- South Africa, Extended Producer Responsibility Regulations (GN 1184, as amended 6 November 2024) and the EPR scheme for the electrical and electronic sector (GN 1185); eWASA published fee schedule
Frequently asked questions
Who is the producer under EPR?
Whoever first puts the product on a national market, defined by role rather than manufacture. Under the EU WEEE Directive and Batteries Regulation that includes a manufacturer selling under its own brand, a rebrander, an importer, and a seller in another country shipping directly to end users. India counts anyone offering imported electronics for sale, whatever the channel, including e-retailers.
What is a producer responsibility organisation (PRO)?
A collective scheme that organises collection and recycling on behalf of its member producers, reports on their behalf and charges them fees. Producers can usually choose between joining a PRO and running an individual scheme, which needs its own authorisation and financial guarantee.
How are EPR fees calculated?
Usually per kilogram by product category, at the net cost of collection, transport and treatment less the value of recovered material, plus administration, awareness and reporting. South Africa's eWASA, for example, publishes electronics fees of R1.50 to R3.60 per kilogram. In India producers instead buy recycling certificates, whose price must sit between 30% and 100% of the penalty for missing the target.
What is eco-modulation?
Varying EPR fees by environmental performance, so that products that are harder to recycle, contain hazardous substances or lack recycled content pay more. The EU Batteries Regulation requires fees to vary at least by battery category and chemistry, and the EU Packaging Regulation makes modulation by recyclability grade mandatory.
Is an eco-levy the same as an EPR fee?
No. An EPR fee is paid to a producer responsibility organisation or the producer's own scheme to fund collection and recycling. An eco-levy is a government charge paid into a public fund, such as California's fee collected at retail on covered display devices, or Kenya's EPR fee collected at import by the national environment authority.