A company that sells electrical and electronic equipment directly to an end user in another European country must appoint an authorized representative for each country of sale. By doing so, the company fulfills its statutory producer responsibility obligations, ie participates in the costs of recycling and waste management of the equipment in the country of sale.
Elker can act as an authorized representative for a company registered abroad that imports, manufactures or sells electrical and electronic equipment and batteries and accumulators under its own brand in Finland. Correspondingly, a Finnish company that sells products to another member country by distance selling must appoint an authorized representative for all the member countries to which the products are sold. Read more: European cooperation
As an authorized representative, Elker takes care of all obligations related to producer responsibility, such as waste management and reporting of monitoring data to the authority, on behalf of the foreign company. The foreign company reports to Elker on a quarterly basis the number of devices it has placed on the market in Finland and Åland in Elker’s reporting system.
A foreign company that has authorized Elker as its representative for electrical and electronic equipment may also report batteries and accumulators (excluding large industrial accumulators) with the same authorization. It is possible for a parent company to report on behalf of its subsidiary, in which case only the parent company is registered in Finland. The basic information of the subsidiaries is reported to the producer organization on a separate form. The contract between the authorised representative and the company can be transferred to another company if, for example, the company merges with another company.
Elker’s authorization is granted in writing. Fill in the company details and submit the electronic form. For more information, please contact membersupport(a)elker.fi
“A foreign distance seller means an operator established abroad who sells products subject to producer responsibility directly to Finnish users.”
Finnish Supervisory Agency, supervicing authority of producer responsibility
Operator equivalent to a producer and non-EU distance seller
An operator equivalent to producer and a non-EU distance seller may, instead of appointing an authorized representative, join a producer organization. However, if the electrical and electronic equipment contains batteries, an authorized representative must be appointed for the batteries in accordance with the Batteries Regulation. A foreign company that has appointed Elker as its authorized representative for electrical and electronic equipment may, under the same authorization, also report batteries and accumulators (excluding large industrial batteries).
An oprator equivalent to producer is a foreign company, that does not operate as a distance seller, but wishes to fulfil producer responsibility obligations, for its own trademarks, on behalf of Finnish retailers. The retailer remains responsible for producer responsibility obligations, related to other trademarks and other producer responsibility categories (e.g. batteries and packaging). The operator equivalent to producer and the producer must sign a notification where operator equivalent to producer agrees to take care of the obligations of a producer (located in Finland). Please, contact membersupport (a) elker.fi for notification document and more info.