WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) regulation makes whoever first places an electronic product on the market — typically the importer, for China-sourced goods — responsible for that product's eventual end-of-life recycling, funded through a producer compliance scheme. This obligation exists independently of the customs entry and is not something a customs declaration or freight booking satisfies.
In practice, an importer bringing electronics into the EU or UK needs to register with a national WEEE compliance scheme (or join one via a compliance partner) before placing products on the market, and the product usually needs to carry the crossed-out wheelie bin symbol indicating it falls under WEEE.
This is distinct from, but related to, the EU and UK battery regulations covering products with embedded or removable batteries, which carry their own separate producer registration — a product can be in scope of both WEEE and battery EPR simultaneously if it is an electronic device with a battery.
We coordinate the shipping and customs clearance; WEEE producer registration is a compliance obligation that sits with the importer and should be in place before the first shipment of a new electronics product line lands, not arranged reactively after a compliance inquiry.