The emergence of the internet, and the resulting growth in online retailing, has improved market access and generated important benefits for consumers. At the same time, online retailing – particularly where it exists in concert with cross-border sales – has begun to adversely affect the functioning of traditional regulatory frameworks. Free-riding on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes – where products placed on the market are not accompanied, or only partially accompanied, by required EPR fees – is one such example. Consumers now have much improved access to sellers abroad but, in many cases, these sellers do not comply with EPR regulations in the country of sale. This creates several problems: • Free-riding that consists in not undertaking physical ‘take-back’ obligations leads to lower collection rates for end of life products. • Free-riding by not paying EPR fees results in financing problems for waste management activities. • Free-riding by under-estimating the number of products placed on the market results in a potential over-estimation of national recycling rates. There is little data on the scale of the problem, but free-riding is probably most prevalent for product categories – such as electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) – that are characterised by a high value to weight ratio. Available information indicates that EPR fees are currently unpaid for around 5-10% of the value of the EEE placed on the market in OECD countries. The problem is unlikely to go away – opportunities for free-riding will only increase with continued growth of online sales. Governments could address free-riding in the context of EPR and online sales through: • Awareness raising: a lack of awareness among online sellers appears to be a part of the problem. This could be addressed in various ways, including through the development of voluntary e-commerce codes of practice, or increased outreach by Producer Responsibility Organisations (PRO) and online marketplaces. • Better enforcement: deliberate avoidance of EPR obligations is also an issue. The development of a single electronic register of producers for each jurisdiction, as well as a simple mechanism allowing suspected free-riders to be reported, would assist enforcement. At the supra- and international levels, better co-ordination of enforcement activity would improve cost effectiveness. • Regulatory measures: EPR regulations remain complex and, in many cases, potentially ambiguous for sellers. In the medium term, the development of a harmonised framework for EPR registration would simplify administrative procedures across jurisdictions and lower compliance costs for producers. In the longer term, websites that sell EEE under their own name could be required to display the details of their PRO registration online.