compliance teamWho must appoint an authorised representative in Germany?
Step 1
Fix the establishment facts
Step 2
Classify the sales route
Step 3
Confirm the duty applies
Step 4
Record exceptions and mixed flows
| Control | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| Scope | Entity, product, channel, stream and source |
| External action | Version, date, authorised filer and issued receipt |
| Maintenance | Source data, approval, invoice and next deadline |
The trigger is narrow and factual
Article 45(3) PPWR requires a producer that makes packaging available in a Member State other than the one it is established in, directly to end users and including by distance contract, to appoint an authorised representative there. Germany went further and exercised the opening clause for third-country producers in section 5(2) VerpackDG, so a producer established outside the EU is caught on the same terms as one established inside it.
The wording that decides the case is "no establishment in Germany". A registered German branch of a foreign group takes the producer outside the duty on the register's own wording; the mechanics of that route should be confirmed for the specific corporate structure before it is relied on. The central agency states plainly that no exemption from the duty is possible.
The sales channel does not change the answer
A marketplace order and an own-webshop order are both distance sales to an end user, so they carry the same duty. There is no marketplace arrangement that relieves the seller, and no pay-on-behalf offering for German packaging has been identified.
A sale to a German business can still be a sale to an end user: the test is whether the buyer resells the goods in the form supplied. A German importer or reseller becomes the producer instead. A business buyer that consumes the product does not, so a bare label of "B2B" settles nothing.
Who can act, and who cannot
The representative must be a natural or legal person with a seat or an establishment in Germany, and it must be external to the producer. An employee of the producer is a user of the register account, not a representative. Auditors who certify completeness declarations are excluded. A producer may have only one representative at a time.
There is no approval, vetting or licensing scheme for representatives, and no public directory of them. Anyone claiming to be an officially approved or certified representative is describing something that does not exist in German law.
Conclusion
Scope comes before a form. Connect the legal entity, its German establishment, the product, the sales channel and the EPR stream to the rule that actually applies.
Evidence must remain traceable. Keep source data, versions, approvals, filings, receipts and every record issued by an external body.
Third-party decisions are never guaranteed. The packaging register, the central agency, the dual systems and the marketplaces control their own procedures, timing and decisions.