Selling to customers in Czechia involves more than arranging delivery. If your business puts packaged products on the Czech market, packaging rules may require registration, an EPR arrangement, records of the packaging supplied and regular reports. The exact duties depend on who is legally the producer and how the goods reach the customer.
The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) has applied generally since 12 August 2026. Czech packaging law and the operating rules of EKO-KOM also matter when a company uses the Czech collective compliance system. This guide follows the practical work from the first review to a repeatable reporting routine.
1. Establish who is responsible for the packaging
Start with the actual sales chain. Does the foreign e-shop sell directly to Czech customers? Is there a Czech importer, distributor, warehouse or fulfilment company? Who adds the outer shipping box and filling? Those facts affect which business is responsible for which packaging.
Do not assume that a marketplace, courier or fulfilment partner has taken over your packaging obligations. Record the roles of each party and check what their contracts actually cover. Our guide to Czech packaging obligations explains the questions to resolve before registration.
2. Build a packaging catalogue
A useful starting record links each product or parcel type to the packaging supplied with it. For every component, keep its material, packaging category and unit weight. A parcel might contain a retail carton, a bottle and cap, a shipping box, filling and tape. The weight of the product itself is not packaging weight.
Supplier specifications or measured weights should support the catalogue. When the pack changes, record the new version and its start date. The catalogue makes it possible to turn sales and dispatch records into packaging quantities without guessing each quarter.
3. Arrange registration and representation where required
Once the responsible producer and its packaging are clear, choose the appropriate Czech compliance route. A foreign producer may need a Czech authorised representative for packaging EPR. Where representation is required, the appointment and EKO-KOM onboarding have a defined sequence: the representative first receives confirmation of its own registration; the producer can then be onboarded under the representative arrangement. EKO-KOM describes a subsequent agreement involving the producer, representative and EKO-KOM. The producer's EPR registration number follows completion of the contractual and payment steps, so it should not be promised merely because a form has been submitted.
For a broader overview of these decisions, see PPWR and EPR in the Czech Republic. The EKO-KOM representative procedure is the primary source for the current onboarding sequence.
4. Report actual packaging after each quarter
An estimate made before launch helps with budgeting. The report uses packaging actually placed on the Czech market during the completed calendar quarter. In practice, the business needs an export of Czech orders or dispatches, a way to match them to the packaging catalogue and a check for cancelled or changed orders.
For example, 500 Czech parcels using a 200 g cardboard box account for 100 kg of that box type. Other packaging components are calculated separately and assigned to the correct reporting categories. The figures should be reconcilable with sales or dispatch records, and the producer should confirm the underlying data before submission.
EKO-KOM lists the reporting windows as 1–30 April, 1–30 July, 1–30 October and 1–30 January of the following year. It accepts a quarterly report only after the relevant quarter has ended. Our packaging data and reporting guide explains the inputs in more detail; the EKO-KOM quarterly reports page provides the current forms and deadlines.
5. Keep fees and responsibilities visible
EKO-KOM's charges and the fee for a service provider are different items. Its published tariff includes an annual agreement fee and material-based charges calculated from reported packaging. Rates depend on the classification of the packaging. A small annual tonnage does not by itself tell you the whole cost or settle whether registration is required.
Keep a record of who supplies the source data, who reviews it, who submits the report, who receives invoices and who pays them. This makes it easier to spot a missing quarter, changed packaging or a difference between the estimate and the actual amount. For a preliminary budget, you can use our e-commerce packaging EPR cost estimate. It covers a narrow shipping-material scenario and is not a final quote.
How Kodo helps
Kodo helps foreign e-shops turn these steps into one clear process. We review the sales route and packaging, prepare a consistent onboarding list, organise the data needed for registration and quarterly reporting, and show which task and cost belongs to whom. Where a representative appointment is appropriate, we coordinate that route in the required order. We can also adapt the data template to the client and its partner so that the same information does not need to be requested again every quarter.
Our aim is simple: the customer should know what to provide, what happens next and how the reported quantities were calculated. If you are preparing to sell into Czechia, contact Kodo with your product categories, sales route and an example of the packaging you use.
Sources: Regulation (EU) 2025/40, EKO-KOM representative procedure, EKO-KOM quarterly reporting and EKO-KOM tariff effective from 1 January 2026. Checked 18 September 2026.
