Markets & streams
Everything the regulatory brain knows is organised along two axes: markets (where a rule applies) and streams (what kind of obligation it is). Understanding these two words makes the rest of Oblifee easy to read.
Markets
A market is a nation or region with its own producer-responsibility rules - its own regulator, fee schedule, material categories, registration thresholds and deadlines. In your workspace you tell Oblifee which markets you place goods on; the brain then supplies the rules for exactly those markets. The brain's internal term for a market is a jurisdiction.
Each market carries its own:
- Regulator and scheme(s)
- Fee rates by material
- Registration and reporting obligations, with thresholds and deadlines
- On-pack labelling requirements
- Recyclability methodology
Streams
A stream is a family of producer obligations. The same market can appear in several streams, each with its own rules, because a business may place packaging, electricals and batteries on the same market under three different regimes.
| Stream | Covers | Module |
|---|---|---|
| Packaging | EPR fees, obligations and recyclability for packaging | Packaging EPR |
| WEEE | Producer obligations for electrical and electronic equipment | WEEE & batteries |
| Batteries | Producer obligations for batteries | WEEE & batteries |
On-pack labelling requirements sit alongside these as their own set of cited rules per market; see On-pack labelling.
A single market can carry rules in more than one stream, and a stream can span many markets. Your obligations are the intersection: the streams you operate in, crossed with the markets you sell to.
Coverage is expanding
Oblifee's coverage grows continuously as the brain is monitored and extended. The brain already spans the United Kingdom and European markets, with more added over time - so this page does not print a fixed list that would go stale.
:::tip Check live coverage For the current, authoritative list of markets and streams - and the fact counts behind each - see Brain coverage. That page is generated from the brain itself, so it is always up to date. :::
How markets reach your data
You attach markets to your data in two places:
- Volumes record how much of a product you placed on a specific market in a period.
- Registrations record where a business is (or must be) enrolled with a scheme.
From there, every module reads the rules for those markets and streams to produce your position.
Where to go next
- Brain coverage - the live list of markets and streams.
- The regulatory brain - how those rules are sourced and monitored.
- Data model - how markets connect to products, volumes and registrations.
- Compliance modules - the modules that read each stream.