Germany's Single-Use Plastics Levy on Amazon.de

In brief: Germany's Single-Use Plastics Fund makes the businesses that make, import or distribute throwaway plastic items pay towards collecting and cleaning up that waste. From 1 January 2025, anyone selling items made with single-use plastic in the German store had to register with the German Environment Agency's DIVID platform, give Amazon a registration number for each brand and product type, and from 2025 report quantities sold each year and pay a levy. Amazon deactivates non-compliant listings from that date.

Single-use plastics rules for Amazon.de sellers in Germany

Seller	Steps
Producer established in Germany	Register each brand in each plastics category on DIVID; submit numbers to Amazon; report and pay yearly
Reseller established in Germany	Get registration numbers from the supplier; submit them; report and pay yearly
Producer or reseller established outside Germany	Register via DIVID and appoint an authorised representative for reporting; submit numbers; report and pay yearly

Brand registration on DIVID opened on 1 August 2024; the Amazon portal opened in October 2024, with submissions reviewed within five working days.

A worked example

A UK seller of disposable party cups and cutlery sells 40,000 units a year on Amazon.de. From 2025 they need an authorised representative in Germany, registration for each brand and product type, and a yearly declaration to DIVID with the levy paid on the quantities sold. Amazon's EPR category report can help with the figures.

What it means for your bookkeeping

• The levy is a cost of German sales. Record it as a compliance cost for Germany when the yearly bill is due, and agree with your accountant whether to accrue it through the year.

• Authorised representative fees are a separate overhead, invoiced by the provider.

• Keep quantity records. The levy is based on types and quantities sold, so keep German unit sales by product.

• VAT: take the treatment from each invoice.

• Keep it out of selling fees. The levy is paid to DIVID, not to Amazon — see Amazon FBA bookkeeping and reconciling an Amazon settlement.

How TrueBooks helps

TrueBooks shows sales and profit by marketplace in each marketplace's own currency, so German compliance costs can be weighed against German revenue. It doesn't register you with DIVID or pay the levy. See the Amazon Xero integration.