If you ship anything with a plug, a battery or a circuit board to French customers, you are inside France's WEEE filière — EEE on the way in (équipements électriques et électroniques), DEEE on the way out (the D is for déchets, waste). It is one of the oldest and largest French EPR streams, and its 2026 tariffs are unusually concrete: a per-unit price in euros, chosen by what the product is and, for most of the schedule, by a measurement — kilograms, litres, or screen inches. This guide walks through who is obligated, who the eco-organismes are, how Ecologic's 2026 household barème actually prices a unit, and which products land here without feeling like electronics at all. Every figure below is quoted verbatim from Ecologic's official Barème Éco-contributions Version 2 — EEE ménagers, applicable from 1 January 2026, which we have machine-extracted and spot-checked against the published pages.
Who counts as the producer
As in every French filière, the obligated "producer" is whoever places the equipment on the French market — and for cross-border e-commerce that is the distance seller. A German D2C brand, a UK marketplace seller, a US Shopify store shipping gadgets directly to French households: all producers, all obligated. And since 10 July 2026, producers not established in France must appoint a French mandataire — a representative established in France who takes over the REP obligations by written mandate. That rule is horizontal across filières, electronics included; we covered it in our guide to France's new mandataire requirement.
Three eco-organismes, split by category
Unlike toys, where one eco-organisme has the whole filière, household WEEE is shared. ADEME's public register — which we verified in August 2026 — lists three: Ecologic, ecosystem, and SOREN, the last covering category 7, photovoltaic panels. Agréments are granted per regulatory category, not per filière: Ecologic holds the household agrément for categories 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8, and its 2026 barème prices exactly those categories — the category column in the document and ADEME's register match line for line. A seller of photovoltaic panels therefore cannot declare them through Ecologic at all. Ecologic and ecosystem publish separate barèmes and their tariffs are not interchangeable; everything below is Ecologic's household schedule, the one we have transcribed in full.
How the 2026 barème prices a unit
The contribution is a per-unit amount in € HT (excluding VAT). The 24-page document covers 118 equipment types — plus refurbished variants of smartphones and laptops with codes of their own — across 314 tariff codes, organised in eight families: large and small household appliances, consumer electronics, IT & telecoms, sport & electric mobility, toys & games consoles, DIY & garden, and thermal & climate equipment.
The detail that catches sellers out: 210 of the 314 codes — about two thirds — are selected by a measured band, so the product's name alone does not give you a price. Usually the band is weight: a refrigerator has three bands (up to 40 kg, 40–80 kg, over 80 kg), and the catch-all "other small equipment" line has eleven, from under 0.2 kg to over 20 kg. But not always weight: televisions are banded by diagonal screen inches (up to 32″, 32–50″, over 50″), and storage water heaters by capacity in litres. To classify a catalogue you need each product's measurements, not just its description.
A handful of representative 2026 tariffs, quoted verbatim with their equipment lines:
- Refrigerator / freezer up to 40 kg → €12.23 per unit.
- Television up to 32″ → €5.08 — banded by inches, not kilos.
- Laptop → €3.32.
- Smartphone → €2.56, or €2.46 when the battery is separable.
- Electrically assisted bicycle / electric cargo bike → €12.94.
- Electric scooter (trottinette) → €4.80.
- Living-room games console → €0.54.
- Drone up to 0.5 kg → €0.21.
- Electric toy at 0.2–0.5 kg → €0.06, or €0.56 with a non-separable battery.
- Cordless drill up to 1.5 kg with its battery → €0.87.
One structural point makes all of this tractable: the code is the tariff line. Modulations for batteries, refrigerant gases, flame-retardant plastics and single-use design are not multipliers you apply afterwards — each modulated case has its own code with the final price baked in. The smartphone at €2.46 and the smartphone at €2.56 are two different codes. Once the right code is assigned, the calculation is just units × tariff. There is also an annual billing minimum of €200 HT, applied once, worth knowing when you model small volumes.
The battery discount — and the doubt rule
Across the entire 2026 document there are exactly four lines where a modulation lowers the price, and they are the four products e-commerce ships most: smartphones (−€0.10, refurbished included), feature phones (−€0.10) and tablets (−€0.21), all for a separable battery. Everywhere else, battery modulation is a penalty for a battery that is not separable — that €0.06 electric toy becomes €0.56. And the barème has a default worth taking seriously: if you cannot justify a modulation criterion, or in case of doubt, the least favourable — most expensive — tariff applies. Documentation is not bureaucracy here; it is the price.
The simplified barème is a convenience tax
Ecologic also publishes a simplified household barème — no weights, no modulations, a flat rate per equipment type. Tempting, until you compare: of the 61 equipment lines that appear in both schedules, all 61 are more expensive on the simplified one, with a median premium of 2× and extremes far beyond it — small portable electronics priced at €0.03 on the standard barème are €1.50 flat on the simplified one (50×), a print cartridge goes from €0.02 to €0.44 (22×), a monitor from €0.06 to €0.90 (15×). Ecologic can also require a switch to the standard schedule once declared tonnage passes 5 tonnes. The simplified route is a reasonable fallback when you genuinely lack product weights — as a permanent choice, it is a tax on not measuring.
Products that don't feel like electronics
The scope surprises are where foreign sellers misfile, and the barème's own family structure spells them out:
- Electric and battery-powered toys. Ecomaison's toy filière explicitly excludes toys falling under REP DEEE, and Ecologic's barème prices them under its own toy family, banded by weight with battery modulation. We covered that boundary from the toy side in our JOUET filière deep dive.
- E-bikes and e-scooters. The sport-and-leisure filière (ASL) covers cycles and non-motorised personal mobility only — its tariff schedule prices the "vélo musculaire" and has no e-bike row at all. The motorised article is DEEE, whole: €12.94 for the e-bike, €4.80 for the e-scooter. The exclusion takes the article, not its accessories — a helmet stays ASL even if its owner rides an e-bike.
- Games consoles and drones. Both sit inside Ecologic's own toys-and-leisure family, with drones banded by weight.
- Power tools and garden machines. The barème has an entire DIY, garden, electricity & home-automation section pricing drills, hedge trimmers, walk-behind mowers and robot mowers. Whatever shelf they sit on in your shop, Ecologic prices them as WEEE.
Batteries and packaging stack on top
When your product's tariff code carries a battery modulation, Ecologic is pricing it as equipment containing a battery— and that same battery makes you a producer in France's batteries filière (BAT), with its own eco-organismes and its own declaration. That pairing is by design, not double-counting: the equipment and the battery are recycled through different streams. And the box, foam and mailer around the device are a third declaration again — household packaging is its own filière and always applies on top. We looked at how packaging EPR hits electronics sellers specifically in our electronics packaging guide. A foreign seller of battery-powered devices should expect three French registrations as the normal case, not the exception.
IDU numbers and marketplace verification
Each filière registration yields an IDU (identifiant unique) issued via ADEME's SYDEREP system — one per filière, so EEE, batteries and packaging each mean their own. Administrative penalties reach €30,000 per missing unique identifier, per filière, but the faster enforcement is commercial: French law makes marketplaces co-responsible for verifying that third-party sellers hold valid IDUs for the relevant filières, and a platform that would otherwise become the producer itself responds by blocking listings. If electronics are your category, expect to be asked for a DEEE IDU, not just a packaging one. Our guide to France's EPR filières maps the whole landscape.
What data to prepare
- Assign each SKU an equipment type. The barème's 118 lines are specific — a stick vacuum, a robot vacuum and a canister vacuum are different lines — and the catch-all lines are usually banded, so precision pays.
- Capture the measurement the band needs. Unit weight for most equipment; diagonal inches for televisions; litres for storage water heaters. Two thirds of the codes cannot be chosen without it.
- Record battery presence and separability. It moves the price in both directions, and the doubt rule prices undocumented cases at the most expensive line.
- Register, get your IDU per filière — and if you are not established in France, appoint your mandataire first.
- Keep per-unit sales to France by product, so each declaration is an export rather than an archaeology project.
How Pack Declare helps
Pack Declare has seeded all 314 published 2026 tariff codes from Ecologic's household barème — extracted from the official document's text layer rather than retyped, verified complete against the source, and spot-checked against the rendered pages. Classify a product once — you pick the equipment type, and where the code depends on a measured band we resolve it from the weight you already store — and we price your real French sales from Shopify, WooCommerce or Amazon data into a per-period estimate, flagging battery-modulated products that also touch the batteries filière and keeping packaging alongside. Lines we cannot price honestly — a missing weight, an unjustified modulation — are reported as such, not silently filled in. No invented tariffs, no interpolation: every figure traces to a published line of the barème.
Check your French electronics & packaging obligations free →
Already using Pack Declare? The estimate for your own catalogue is in the app.
Frequently asked questions
Which eco-organisme handles WEEE in France?
For household equipment, ADEME’s register lists three: Ecologic and ecosystem, plus SOREN for category 7 (photovoltaic panels). Agréments are granted per regulatory category — Ecologic covers household categories 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8 — and the two generalists publish separate barèmes whose tariffs are not interchangeable.
How does Ecologic price electronics in 2026?
As a per-unit amount excluding VAT, by tariff code: 118 equipment types across 314 codes, with modulations for batteries and other criteria baked into the code itself. 210 of the 314 codes are chosen by a measured band — weight for most equipment, diagonal inches for televisions, litres for storage water heaters.
Do I need my products’ weights to declare WEEE in France?
For about two thirds of Ecologic’s 2026 codes, yes — the code cannot be selected without the measurement. A refrigerator has three weight bands, the catch-all small-equipment line has eleven, and televisions need screen inches rather than kilos. The simplified barème drops the measurements but is more expensive on every one of the 61 equipment lines the two schedules share.
Are e-bikes and e-scooters WEEE in France?
Yes. The sport-and-leisure filière covers only non-motorised mobility — its schedule prices the “vélo musculaire” and has no e-bike row — so the motorised article is DEEE: €12.94 per electrically assisted bicycle and €4.80 per electric scooter on Ecologic’s 2026 barème. Accessories like helmets stay in the sport filière.
Where do electric toys, consoles and drones go?
Into the WEEE filière. Ecomaison’s toy filière excludes toys falling under REP DEEE, and Ecologic’s own barème has a toys-and-leisure family pricing electric toys by weight band, games consoles (€0.54 for a living-room console) and drones (€0.21 up to 0.5 kg).
Does a battery change the French WEEE tariff?
In both directions. A separable battery earns the only discounts in the 2026 document — €0.10 off a smartphone, €0.21 off a tablet — while a non-separable one is a penalty: an electric toy at 0.2–0.5 kg goes from €0.06 to €0.56. If a modulation criterion cannot be justified, the barème applies the most expensive tariff by default. A battery-modulated product also owes the separate batteries filière.
Is there a minimum fee for WEEE declarations with Ecologic?
Yes — an annual billing minimum of €200 excluding VAT, applied once rather than per line. Small-volume sellers should build it into their cost model before assuming per-unit tariffs are the whole bill.
Do foreign electronics sellers need a mandataire in France?
Yes, if not established in France. Since 10 July 2026 the mandataire obligation applies horizontally across French filières, WEEE included: a distance seller shipping electronics to French households is the producer and must appoint a representative established in France by written mandate.
Related reading: France's new mandataire rule for foreign sellers · The complete guide to France's EPR filières · The JOUET filière and Ecomaison's 2026 tariffs