Any company that distributes packaging material to private customers (or similar waste generation points) in Germany is required by law to pay a corresponding licensing fee.
For used packaging materials (such as used cardboard boxes), the following applies:
If you decide to re-use this packaging (whether once or on multiple occasions) to sell your goods to consumers, then you must ensure that this packaging is also licensed in a dual system.
Rationale: this packaging becomes shipping or sales packaging once you have filled it with your own goods. Only in cases where you are an online merchant and you are able to supply proof that the packaging you are reusing has already participated in a dual system are you exempted from system participation for the packaging reused in this way.
We have drawn this conclusion based on a position paper published on this topic by the ZSVR (LUCID).
