What sellers ask first about EU and UK compliance
Published · Last updated · Data: Eldris enquiries · CC BY 4.0
We read the first message from each of the 140 leads that wrote to Eldris with a question between 30 January and 22 September 2026. 60.0% raised money in that first message: what it will cost (49.3%) or what the fee covers (26.4%). Among sellers of cosmetics, 36.6% asked whether the documents they already hold will do.
Below is every question we were asked often enough to publish, with an answer and a link to the rule it comes from. The figures are counts of enquiries, published only in groups. They name nobody, and no message text is reproduced anywhere on this page.
Every question, by how often it is asked
Share of the 140 prospects whose first message raised it. A message can raise several, so the column adds up to more than 100%.
| Question | Prospects | Share |
|---|---|---|
| What will it cost for my products and countries? | 69 | 49.3% |
| What exactly does the fee cover, and what is billed separately? | 37 | 26.4% |
| Does the rule apply to my product or business (category, formula or shade count, B2B, thresholds)? | 29 | 20.7% |
| Which documents or tests do I need? | 27 | 19.3% |
| Do I need an authorised representative for EPR, and can you be it? | 27 | 19.3% |
| How long does it take, and can you meet my deadline? | 19 | 13.6% |
| How does it work, and what do I have to do? | 18 | 12.9% |
| What ongoing reporting is required, and who files it? | 17 | 12.1% |
| Will the documents I already have do? | 16 | 11.4% |
| I need an EPR registration number for a country | 15 | 10.7% |
| Can I speak to a person? | 14 | 10.0% |
| Can you be our EU or UK Responsible Person, and what does that involve? | 13 | 9.3% |
| Can you prepare the CPSR, PIF and CPNP notification for me? | 12 | 8.6% |
| Amazon or another marketplace is asking for it: what do I send? | 11 | 7.9% |
| What do I need to sell my product in this market? | 11 | 7.9% |
10 further themes are not listed separately, among them billing and invoicing, what must go on the label, UK-specific questions, switching provider or an existing registration, a supplier who cannot or will not provide documents, quote tool or checkout problems. Some are about how Eldris works rather than about the rules, and the smallest were raised by only a handful of leads.
Who is asking
88 of the 140 prospects wrote about EPR (62.9%), 41 about a cosmetics safety file (29.3%) and 24 about being or needing a Responsible Person (17.1%). An enquiry can touch more than one.
Cosmetics safety file: CPSR, PIF, CPNP
41 prospects
- What will it cost for my products and countries?41.5%
- Which documents or tests do I need?36.6%
- Will the documents I already have do?36.6%
- Can you prepare the CPSR, PIF and CPNP notification for me?29.3%
- Can you be our EU or UK Responsible Person, and what does that involve?22.0%
- Does the rule apply to my product or business (category, formula or shade count, B2B, thresholds)?14.6%
EU and UK Responsible Person
24 prospects
- What will it cost for my products and countries?54.2%
- Can you be our EU or UK Responsible Person, and what does that involve?50.0%
- What exactly does the fee cover, and what is billed separately?20.8%
EPR: packaging, WEEE, batteries
88 prospects
- What will it cost for my products and countries?54.5%
- What exactly does the fee cover, and what is billed separately?35.2%
- Do I need an authorised representative for EPR, and can you be it?30.7%
- Does the rule apply to my product or business (category, formula or shade count, B2B, thresholds)?25.0%
- What ongoing reporting is required, and who files it?19.3%
- I need an EPR registration number for a country17.0%
What changed through the year
In the second quarter of 2026 price was the most common first question (64.0% of 25 prospects, a small base, so indicative only). In the third quarter, around the 12 August packaging deadline, volume rose to 111 prospects — partly the deadline, partly Eldris's own outreach from 4 August — and the questions moved on: more asked what a fee actually covers (28.8%), and "will my existing documents do?" appeared (14.4%). The first quarter had too few enquiries to break down.
| Quarter | Prospects | EPR | Cosmetics | Cost | What the fee covers | Will my documents do? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Q1 | fewer than 20 prospects: not broken down | |||||
| 2026 Q2 | 25 | 56.0% | 32.0% | 64.0% | — | — |
| 2026 Q3 | 111 | 66.7% | 29.7% | 46.8% | 28.8% | 14.4% |
Some inboxes only keep mail from late July 2026, so earlier months are under-counted. Compare shares within a quarter, not raw counts across quarters.
Where they want to sell
The markets named most often were the EU as a whole (34), DE (27), FR (19), ES (19), IT (17) and IE (17). Of the 48 prospects who said how they sell, 22 sell on Amazon, 14 through their own web shop and 10 business to business.
The questions, answered
Each answer states the rule it comes from. The full texts are in our requirements guide.
What will it cost for my products and countries?
Asked by 49.3% of prospects
It depends on the product, how many markets you sell in and what you already hold, so any honest answer starts with your case. An Eldris consultation is fixed price: £195 for three markets, £295 for six and £495 for the EU 27 and the UK, with the written report in 3, 6 or 10 working days from your documents.
What exactly does the fee cover, and what is billed separately?
Asked by 26.4% of prospects
Ask any provider for a quote that separates its own work from any fees charged by national registers or compliance schemes, and that says who files the ongoing reports. Under the EU packaging rules, for example, registered producers report their data to the register by 1 June for the previous calendar year, so it is worth knowing whether that year-by-year work is included.
Does the rule apply to my product or my business?
Asked by 20.7% of prospects
Usually it turns on what the product is, where you are established and how you sell. Two examples from the texts: a business established in another Member State or outside the EU that sells packaged products directly to end users in a Member State counts as a packaging producer there; and the General Product Safety Regulation applies in so far as no specific EU rules with the same objective regulate the product's safety.
Which documents or tests do I need?
Asked by 19.3% of prospects
For a cosmetic in the EU: a safety assessment and a cosmetic product safety report in two parts, with Part B carried out by someone holding a university qualification in pharmacy, toxicology, medicine or a similar discipline, or a course a Member State recognises as equivalent, plus a product information file kept for ten years after the last batch. For other consumer products under the GPSR, the manufacturer carries out an internal risk analysis and draws up technical documentation, kept for 10 years; those duties fall away where specific EU harmonisation legislation covers the product. Which tests sit behind those documents depends on the product.
Do I need an authorised representative for EPR, and can Eldris be it?
Asked by 19.3% of prospects
For packaging, a producer that makes packaging or packaged products available directly to end users in a Member State where it is not established must appoint an authorised representative for extended producer responsibility there, by written mandate; Member States may also require producers established outside the EU to appoint one. For batteries, a business selling at a distance directly to end users in a Member State where it is not established counts as a producer there and appoints an authorised representative there. For electrical equipment the WEEE Directive works through each Member State's national law. Eldris acts as that representative where one is needed.
How long does it take?
Asked by 13.6% of prospects
An Eldris consultation report takes 3, 6 or 10 working days from the moment you submit your documents, depending on the plan. Registrations run on their own clocks: under the packaging regulation the register authority issues a registration number within 12 weeks of receiving complete information, the regulation itself applies from 12 August 2026, and battery producer registration has applied since 18 August 2025.
What ongoing reporting is required, and who files it?
Asked by 12.1% of prospects
Under the EU packaging rules, producers registered in a national register report their data to it by 1 June for the previous calendar year. Other schemes have their own cycles, set by national law. Who files is a matter of your arrangement: Eldris files for the registrations it runs for you.
Will the documents I already have do?
Asked by 11.4% of prospects
This is the question the consultation exists to answer, and the one cosmetics sellers ask most: 36.6% of the 41 cosmetics prospects asked it outright. Supplier paperwork is rarely the finished article. For a cosmetic, whatever you hold has to add up to a product information file containing a safety report whose Part B was carried out by a qualified assessor; the file is kept for ten years after the last batch and made readily accessible at the Responsible Person's address shown on the label.
Amazon is asking me for an EPR number. What happens now?
10.7% asked for a registration number for a country, and 7.9% because a marketplace asked them for one
From 12 August 2026, an online marketplace covered by the Digital Services Act's marketplace rules that lets consumers make distance contracts with producers must, before letting a producer use its services, obtain that producer's registration details for the Member State where the consumer is located and a self-certification that it meets its extended producer responsibility duties there. So the marketplace is asking for the number the national register issues when you register.
Can Eldris be our EU or UK Responsible Person?
Asked by 9.3% of prospects
Yes. For an imported cosmetic, the importer is the Responsible Person for the products it places on the market unless it designates a person established in the EU by written mandate, accepted in writing; Great Britain works the same way with a person established in the United Kingdom. For products covered by the General Product Safety Regulation, there must be an economic operator established in the EU responsible for the product.
Typical enquiries
These are the recurring shapes of question, described in our own words from the coded themes. They are not quotations: no enquiry's wording, product, company or country is carried over.
- Sellers who already hold supplier paperwork ask whether it is enough for a safety assessment.
- Sellers with several variants of one formulation ask whether that counts as one product or several.
- Sellers asked by a marketplace for a registration number in a market they barely ship to ask for the quickest compliant route.
- Sellers appointing an authorised representative ask whether they keep their own access to the national register.
- Sellers who already hold conformity marks ask whether a separate waste registration still applies.
- Sellers who only sell business to business ask whether the obligation still sits with them.
How this was counted
- What was read. Each lead's first message to Eldris's own business mailboxes, between 30 January 2026 and 22 September 2026 — or, where that first message was a blank contact-form alert carrying no question, that lead's first written follow-up (17 of the 140). Of 164 leads, 140 asked a question, 13 were existing customers (counted separately and not shown here) and 11 left contact details without a question. 4 wrote on behalf of a client.
- Coding. Each message was read once and coded by hand into question themes, the service it concerned, the markets named and the sales channel. A message can carry several themes.
- Publication rules. A share is published only for a group of at least 20 prospects, and counts under 5 are withheld. Nothing is published that names or could identify a person or a business, and no message text is reproduced.
- Excluded. Spam, automated replies, bounces, vendors pitching Eldris, partnership proposals, and messages that carried no question.
Limits
- Only enquiries that reached Eldris's business mailboxes are counted; enquiries by phone, messaging apps or third-party platforms are not.
- Some inboxes only keep mail from late July 2026, so earlier months are under-counted. Compare shares, not raw counts, across quarters.
- Q3 2026 includes 12 August 2026, when the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation began to apply; Eldris also ran its own PPWR outreach from 4 August, so part of the rise in enquiries is Eldris's own doing.
- The second quarter has only 25 prospects and the first quarter 4, so those shares are indicative only.
- Themes were coded by hand by one reader; a message can carry several themes, so shares add up to more than 100%.
- 43 of the 140 first messages were replies to an Eldris quote, which raises the share asking what a fee covers.
- These answers state what the official texts say. They are regulatory compliance guidance, not legal advice.
- These are the questions people bring to Eldris. Businesses that never ask are not represented, and the mix reflects what Eldris sells.
Download the data (CSV) · Licensed CC BY 4.0: credit "Eldris (consult.eldris.ai)" (terms).
Sources
- Eldris enquiry records, 30 January 2026 to 22 September 2026 (aggregated and anonymised)
- What an EU or UK product launch needs, by product type (Eldris guide, with the official texts)
- Eldris cosmetics compliance and Eldris EPR registrations
The texts behind the answers
- Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety Regulation (EUR-Lex)
- Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (EUR-Lex)
- Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products (EUR-Lex)
- Directive 2012/19/EU on waste electrical and electronic equipment (EUR-Lex)
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, Batteries Regulation (EUR-Lex)
- Making cosmetic products available to consumers in Great Britain (GOV.UK)
- The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 (legislation.gov.uk)