Starting on the 1st January 2025 , the consumers in France will pay higher eco-contribution charges (eco-participation). This increase is displayed on the newly published overviews by the French scheme ecosystem.

Based on this cost breakdown, electrical equipment such as a computer mouse will see a contribution charge increas of 37,5 %. A larger equipment such as an air purifier raises by 8 % in contribution.

The eco-contribution per sales unit in France is a so-called „visible fee“ for recycling. Such charges levied on the sales units of articles that fall into the scope of an extended producer responsibility are intended to fund the collection, recycling, and disposal of products at the end of their life span. In fact, the collected funds are used to fund an equivilant amount of articles that are to be recycled at the moment of the purchase of the new article.

Consequently, with every purchase of an article that is subject to the extended producer responsibility the end consumer in France sees a separte line item „eco participation“ on his sales receipt. This line item shows clearly the amount that is charged by the seller (e.g the retailer) related to the main item that the consumer has just acquired. The end price is the total of the article price and the eco-partipation and both line items are charged with the respective VAT.

In order to both comply with the regulations and also to budget the right amounts, the producers have to regularly verify which amounts of the eco-particpation are relevant to them and have to enter or amend those fees as individual items into both their accounting and EPR systems.

France is among six counries within the European Union that apply the concept of visible recycling fees to the arena of the Extended Producer Responsibility. Those fees therefore apply also to other areas such as furniture and toys in France.