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Nordic Swan Ecolabel - What does it cost?

Posted Date:2018/11/28

What does it cost?

When you apply for the Nordic Swan Ecolabel, you must pay a fee. Additionally, when you have a certification, you must pay an annual usage fee based on the turnover of the certified product or service.

What do you need to pay when you apply for the Nordic Swan Ecolabel?

When you apply for a licence for the Nordic Swan Ecolabel, you must pay an application fee. Typically, the fee amounts to 3,000 euros + VAT and can normally cover several products manufactured at the same production site.

The application fee covers the time the national ecolabelling organisation spends processing your application including one inspection visit to a production site in the Nordic region. 

If more than one inspection visit is needed or if your products are produced outside of the Nordic region, you will have to pay an additional fee for the inspection visit to cover travelling and workhours related to the visit. The fee for inspection visits is listed in the fee table for your product group.

What do you need to pay when you have a certification for the Nordic Swan Ecolabel?

You will need to pay an annual usage fee in order to maintain your certification for the Nordic Swan Ecolabel - even if the mark has not been actively used in marketing. The annual usage fee is based on your annual revenue from your Nordic Swan ecolabelled goods and/or services. You will therefore have to report which countries you are selling to and the estimated annual revenue per country. This applies to countries both in and outside of the Nordic region.

You will always have to pay the annual usage fee - typically, the minimum fee amounts to 2,000 euros + VAT. For many product groups, there is also a maximum fee size.

You must pay the annual usage fee even if you have only had a licence for part of the year. However, you will only have to pay usage fee for the part of the year where you have had the certification. The minimum and maximum fee sizes will be adjusted if you have acquired a certification after the 1st of July.

When you become certificed, the annual usage fee will be calculated with an on-account invoice for the current year. Subsequently, at the beginning of the new year you will receive a new on-account invoice together with an annual statement for the previous year.

You will receive an invoice from each of the Nordic countries that you are selling in.

Payment terms

VAT is added to the fee upon invoicing, and the invoice must be paid within 30 days.

What are the fees used for?

Nordic Ecolabelling is a non-profit organisation. This means that the revenue from fees is used to process applications and manage certifications in the national ecolabelling organisations - and to increase the supply and demand for ecolabelled goods and services. The purpose is to reduce the total environmental impact for the benefit of people, the environment and the Earth's resources.

Nordic Ecolabelling is focused on increasing the demand for goods and services that carry the Nordic Swan Ecolabel from both consumers, companies and green public procurement - and to ensure that there is a high level of awareness and high credibility associated with the Nordic Swan Ecolabel.

Application fees and annual usage fees vary from product group to product group.