Articles · 2026-09-16
How much does EPR cost? Packaging fees and eco-modulation by country
EPR fees are kilograms by material times a rate set by the scheme or the state, often graded by recyclability. Real 2026 figures from five countries.
EPR fees are not one European price. Each country sets its own, and the same box costs a different amount at every border. Below are the short answers, with figures we checked at source.
How much does EPR cost?
There is no single figure. The fee is set by the scheme or by the state, per material, and changes every year. What we have verified for 2026:
- France: under 10 000 units a year a flat fee — Citeo 110 EUR (2026), Adelphe 80 EUR (2025); Léko caps a simplified declaration under 20 000 units at 150 EUR.
- Sweden: NPA charged about 6.67 SEK/kg for readily recyclable paper against 9.65 for the rest, and about 13.40 SEK/kg for readily recyclable plastic against 18–20. On top, a supervision fee of 1 250 SEK a year.
- Italy: from 1 October 2026, CONAI's plastic bands run from 51 EUR/t (A1.1) to 922 EUR/t (C).
- Czech Republic: 800 CZK to be entered in the register and 800 CZK every following year (Act 477/2001, § 30). A producer whose EKO-KOM contract covers all its packaging is not entered; it pays EKO-KOM's fee by weight, and EKO-KOM pays the yearly 800 CZK per client.
- Hungary: a rate per kilogram set by ministerial decree, invoiced by MOHU every quarter.
How are EPR packaging fees calculated?
Almost everywhere the same way:
kilograms placed on the market × rate for that material, adjusted for recyclability where the country modulates.
Hungary writes it into law: the fee is the quantity in your quarterly report multiplied by the unit rate for that fee code (Govt. Decree 80/2023, § 20). France is the exception at the small end — it counts units, not weight — six countries, six counting units.
What is eco-modulation?
A fee that moves with how recyclable the packaging is: easy to recycle pays less, hard to recycle pays more. From our country table on 16 September 2026:
- Modulated: 13 countries — BE, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GR, IE, IT, NL, PT, SE.
- Not modulated: 13 countries — BG, CY, EE, HR, HU, LT, LU, LV, MT, PL, RO, SI, SK.
- Not established: 1 — AT.
Czech law requires the scheme to modulate where possible and to charge qualifying reusable packaging less than single-use (Act 477/2001, § 21).
Why are EPR fees different in each country?
Because the schemes are national. The rates pay for each country's own collection and sorting, and each country decides whether one scheme, several competing schemes or the state collects the money. Italy shows how far apart materials can sit inside one country: band C costs eighteen times band A1.1.
What makes the fee go up?
- Missing data. In Italy, where a flow mixes bands that cannot be told apart, the highest band applies.
- Hard-to-recycle material. PVC and carbon black sit in Italy's most expensive band.
- Counting reusable packaging as single-use. In Hungary reusable packaging pays only when it is first placed on the market (§ 22/C).
What makes the fee go down?
- Reusable packaging — Denmark: a producer with only reusable packaging pays no collective scheme; it pays administration fees and the treatment of what it takes back.
- Deposit packaging — Hungary: packaging inside the mandatory deposit system pays no EPR fee (§ 15(2)).
- Proven export — Hungary: a buyer who declares that at least 60 % will be exported takes the fee off the seller (§ 22).
Is the EPR fee a tax?
No. It pays the scheme for collection and recycling. A packaging tax is separate and goes to the tax authority — the packaging tax is not the Ecoembes fee. New to the topic — what is EPR for packaging.
What a spreadsheet cannot do here
A total in kilograms cannot be priced. The fee needs the split by material, by recyclability, by country and by reusable versus single-use — and in Italy a missing split is charged at the highest rate.
What Tarafex does
It keeps that split from the shipments you already record: one row per component, its material, its weight frozen on the shipping day, reusable packaging beside the single-use total, and every weight marked as measured or estimated. The country table holds each country's scheme and source. Tarafex does not calculate the money — it gives you the kilograms the price is applied to.
Sources: Tarafex country table; France: Citeo, ADEME, Léko, Adelphe 2025, Projet Celsius; Sweden: NPA, Naturvårdsverket; Italy: CONAI; Czech Republic: Act 477/2001; Hungary: Government Decree 80/2023; Denmark: Miljøstyrelsen. Checked 16 September 2026. This is information, not legal advice.