Answer · updated 12 September 2026

Do I need a LUCID number as a UK seller

Yes. If you send a parcel to a customer in Germany, you register in LUCID before that parcel goes.

LUCID is the packaging register run by the Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister (ZSVR). Registering is free, and it is open to a seller established outside Germany.

Registration on its own is not enough. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) means you also pay a dual system, the private scheme that collects and recycles the packaging you send.

You register in your own name. Nobody can hold the registration for you, though a service provider may help you complete it.

Since 1 July 2022 marketplaces may not let a seller offer goods without a valid registration. Amazon has removed listings on that basis, and asks for the number in your account.

At a glance

Country: Germany
Register: LUCID, run by the Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister
Instrument: Verpackungsgesetz (VerpackG)
Trigger: The first parcel of packaging sent to Germany
Cost to register: €0

4 obligations apply · 4 do not · 0 you buy elsewhere

What applies

Verpackungsgesetz (VerpackG), §9

Contract with a dual system for the packaging you place on the German market

VerpackG, §7

Report the same packaging volumes to LUCID as you report to the dual system

VerpackG, §10

Give the marketplace a valid registration number, or it may not let you sell

VerpackG, §9(5)

What does not apply

A German company or a German address

A seller established abroad registers directly as the producer of the packaging.

An agency registered in your place

The LUCID entry is personal to you. Help with the forms is fine, the name on them is yours.

One registration for the whole European Union

There is none. Germany, France and Italy each run a separate scheme with separate numbers.

A fee for the register itself

LUCID registration costs nothing. What you pay for is the dual system contract, priced on weight.

What to do first

01Weigh a typical order's packaging by material: paper and card, plastic, glass, metal, wood.
02Estimate the yearly weight you send to Germany from that.
03Register in LUCID and keep the registration number.
04Sign with a dual system for those weights, then report the same figures in LUCID.
05Enter the number where Amazon, Etsy or your own checkout asks for it.

Sources

We read the texts and name them. We do not sell representation, and we say when you need it.

The rules move. Watch tells you when one of these changes.

Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (PPWR) applies from 12 August 2026 and rewrites packaging duties across the European Union. Watch is the free notice of what changed, who it hits, and what to do.

Next answers

This page is written from the official texts named above and from your own product's facts only when you run the Check. It is documentation, not legal advice.