French EPR category guide
French PMCB EPR guidance for construction products and building materials, including registration, product coding and declarations.
Category overview
PMCB EPR applies to defined products and materials intended to be incorporated, installed or used permanently in buildings and construction work. The stream is divided into material categories, and boundaries with furniture, DIY products and electrical equipment require careful review.
EPR scope is product-specific. A product can fall under several streams, and its packaging may create an additional obligation. Confirm the current official scope before placing products on the French market.
Scope assessment
These examples are a starting point, not a substitute for checking the detailed legal and eco-organization nomenclature.
The intended building use is central to PMCB classification.
Furniture, tools, chemicals and EEE supplied to a project can belong to separate streams.
Inert and non-inert material categories can follow different fee and collection arrangements.
Compliance roadmap
Registration is only one part of compliance. Product classification, declarations, records and post-registration duties must remain aligned.
Map each product against the official stream definitions. Review function, materials, intended user, sales channel, components and packaging instead of relying only on customs codes or catalogue labels.
Establish who first places the product on the French market. Depending on the supply chain, this may be a manufacturer, importer, private-label seller, distance seller or marketplace.
Most producers join an approved eco-organization. An approved individual system may be possible, but it carries direct operational, collection, treatment and reporting responsibilities.
Complete the relevant onboarding, provide company and product information and obtain the unique identifier for this EPR stream. Each applicable stream can issue a separate IDU.
Submit products first placed on the French market using the required units, weights and category codes. Eco-contributions are normally calculated from these declarations.
Keep auditable records, renew declarations, monitor fee schedules and eco-modulation, and apply any stream-specific sorting, take-back, consumer-information or prevention obligations.
Declaration readiness
Reliable source data reduces classification errors and makes recurring declarations easier to audit. Keep the calculation method and source records alongside every submitted return.
Declaration periods, category codes, fee scales and minimum contributions vary by eco-organization and stream. Confirm the current member guide before calculating a return.
PMCB material category and product code
Units, dimensions and tonnage placed on the market
Principal material and recycled content
Intended construction or building use
Sales channel and professional customer profile
Supplier evidence, internal calculations and copies of submitted declarations
Cross-stream review
EPR categories overlap by design. Assess the complete product, incorporated components, accessories, printed inserts and packaging.
Common questions
No. Scope follows the product's nature and intended construction use, not the store in which it is sold. Tools, furniture, chemicals and electrical products may belong to other streams.
They may when they are the first party placing covered products on the French market, including through direct distance sales. The contractual supply chain should be checked.
No. The IDU is stream-specific. A company covered by several streams can hold several unique identifiers and must maintain the registration and declarations for each one.
It may need to register when it directly places covered products on the French market, including through distance sales. The answer depends on the contractual chain, customer and role of any importer or marketplace.
Category assessment
We can review your products, identify overlapping streams and prepare the information needed for French registration and IDU applications.
This page provides general information and is not legal advice. Product scope, approved schemes, fees and reporting rules can change. Confirm the rules that apply when your products are placed on the French market.
