EU Packaging And Packaging Waste Regulation—what International Corporate Groups Should Know

For companies placing packaged goods on the EU market, Regulation (EU) 2025/40 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 2024 on packaging and packaging waste (PPWR) is no longer a future regulatory project. Its core framework has applied across the EU since 12 August 2026. The PPWR replaces Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste (Packaging Directive), subject to limited transitional carve-outs, and introduces a directly applicable product-law regime for packaging design, substance restrictions, labelling, conformity documentation, traceability, recyclability, reuse, recycled content and extended producer responsibility (EPR).

Because the PPWR is directly applicable and replaces the Packaging Directive and the national laws that transposed it, businesses could in principle benefit from a single EU packaging framework instead of the previously fragmented national requirements. However, diverging national law remains a central part of the compliance landscape: registration, reporting, fees, authorisations, market surveillance and penalties continue to be governed by Member State rules, and national implementation is at markedly different stages. Germany, for example, has adopted the Packaging Law Implementation Act (Verpackungsrecht-Durchführungsgesetz), which replaces the Packaging Act (Verpackungsgesetz) and applies alongside the PPWR from 12 August 2026, largely preserving the existing national compliance infrastructure, including the LUCID packaging register.

In practice, legal, compliance, procurement, packaging development, logistics and tax/finance teams will need a coordinated governance model covering both harmonised EU product rules and country-specific obligations.

1. LEGISLATIVE STATUS AND IMPLEMENTATION TIMETABLE

The PPWR is final and in force. There is no general postponement or broad grace period for new packaging placed on the EU market from that date.

The legal framework is, however, not yet complete at secondary-law level. Approximately 30 delegated and implementing acts remain to be adopted under the PPWR, including acts on harmonised EPR registration and reporting formats, harmonised labelling and waste-sorting information, recycled-content calculation methods and recyclability criteria.

Until those acts are adopted, several obligations will not apply in full, because the PPWR ties their application to the later of a fixed date and a transition period running from the entry into force of the relevant act. Therefore, legislative delay may translate into longer transition periods as the EU Commission is already behind the statutory timetable in some areas: the implementing act on producer registers under Article 44 para. 14 PPWR, which was due by 12 February 2026, remains pending and is delaying alignment of the national registers. The labelling implementing acts, originally due by 12 August 2026, are now expected in the fourth quarter of 2026.

2. WHO CARRIES WHICH RESPONSIBILITY?

Packaging is now regulated as a product and must satisfy EU-wide sustainability, labelling and information requirements throughout the supply chain. The PPWR also broadens the EPR regime, under which producers remain responsible for their products across the full lifecycle, including the post-consumer stage.

The PPWR draws an important distinction between product-law functions and EPR functions. An entity may act as a manufacturer, importer or distributor for product-compliance purposes, while separately qualifying as a producer for EPR purposes in one or more Member States.

Additionally, within corporate groups, different roles may attach to different group entities, so that a group may hold several roles simultaneously.

Role classification must therefore be carried out entity by entity and market by market.

ROLES AT A GLANCE

3. PRODUCT REGULATION

As noted above, the PPWR treats packaging as a regulated product and introduces familiar EU product-law concepts, including technical documentation, declarations of conformity and labelling obligations for the packaging itself.

Producers of packaged goods must therefore comply not only with the documentation, substance and labelling requirements applicable to the product itself, but also with the corresponding requirements governing its packaging. They should accordingly monitor relevant regulatory developments under both product-specific and cross-cutting EU legislation, including Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 establishing a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for sustainable products (ESPR) and Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety (GPSR).

Food-contact packaging is additionally subject to Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 on materials and articles intended to come into contact with food together with applicable implementing and sector-specific measures. Corporate groups managing EU-wide compliance programs should assess these overlapping regimes in an integrated manner to avoid duplication, ensure consistency and identify potential conflicts.

As noted above, PPWR obligations apply in phases. The following requirements are, however, already applicable and enforceable as of 12 August 2026:

• Conformity and records. Before placing packaging on the market, manufacturers must carry out a conformity assessment, draw up an EU declaration of conformity and maintain technical documentation. The declaration and the technical documentation must be drawn up before the packaged product is placed on the market and must be retained for five years for single-use packaging and ten years for reusable packaging. 
• Substances of concern and PFAS restrictions. The obligation to minimise substances of concern under Article 5 para. 1 PPWR already applies, and the aggregate concentration of the heavy metals lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium is limited to 100 mg/kg. Food-contact packaging is additionally subject to PFAS limits.
• Labelling and traceability. Each packaging type, batch or serial identifier should be linked to the technical file and declaration. Manufacturer and, where relevant, importer details must be provided on the packaging or in permitted accompanying or digital documentation.

Further requirements will phase in over the coming years and do not yet apply. The principal upcoming obligations include:

• Labelling. Packaging will require a harmonised material-composition and sorting label from 12 August 2028, or 24 months after entry into force of the implementing acts, whichever is later; as those acts are overdue, the date is likely to shift. E-commerce packaging is covered; transport packaging is not. Reusable packaging additionally requires a reusability label and QR code, currently expected from 12 February 2029.
• Recyclability. Packaging must meet the design-for-recycling criteria and achieve performance grade A, B or C (95%, 80% or 70%; below 70% is non-recyclable) from 1 January 2030, or 24 months after the delegated acts, whichever is later. From 1 January 2035, or five years after entry into force of the relevant implementing acts, packaging must additionally be recycled at scale, and from 1 January 2038 grade C will no longer qualify as recyclable. Immediate packaging of medicinal products and medical devices, infant and special medical purpose foods and packaging for dangerous goods benefit from (in part time-limited) exemptions.
• Recycled content in plastic packaging. From 1 January 2030 or three years after the calculation methodology is adopted, each plastic part must contain minimum post-consumer recycled content of 30% (contact-sensitive PET), 10% (other contact-sensitive plastics), 30% (single-use beverage bottles) and 35% (all other plastic packaging), rising sharply in 2040. Plastic parts representing less than 5% of the total weight of the packaging unit and certain medicinal, dangerous-goods and contact-sensitive packaging are excluded.
• Minimisation and empty space. From 12 February 2028, economic operators filling sales packaging must ensure that empty space is reduced to the minimum necessary to preserve the functionality of the packaging, including product protection. From 1 January 2030 (or three years after the relevant implementing act), grouped, transport and e-commerce packaging must observe a maximum empty-space ratio of 50%, and weight and volume must be reduced to the necessary minimum; double walls, false bottoms and unnecessary layers will be prohibited.
• Reuse targets. From 1 January 2030, 40% of transport and transport-related sales packaging in the listed formats (pallets, crates, trays, IBCs, drums, wrappings) must be reusable, rising to a 70% endeavour target in 2040, expressed as an indicative target that Member States must endeavour to achieve but that does not constitute a binding legal obligation enforceable against individual economic operators. Dangerous-goods, custom-designed, food-contact flexible packaging and cardboard boxes are excluded. Transport packaging used within a single Member State between sites of the same economic operator, or between linked and partner enterprises, must be 100% reusable. Cardboard boxes, dangerous-goods packaging, custom-designed and flexible food-contact packaging are excluded, and micro-enterprises are exempt. Reporting starts with calendar year 2030. 
• Banned packaging formats. From 1 January 2030, the PPWR bans single-use plastic grouped packaging, plastic packaging for fresh fruit and vegetables below 1.5 kg, single-use plastic for on-site food and drink service, condiment sachets and hotel toiletry miniatures. Limited relief applies to micro-enterprises.
• Deposit return schemes. By 1 January 2029, Member States must establish deposit return schemes (DRS) for single-use plastic beverage containers of up to three litres and single-use metal beverage containers of up to three litres (Article 50 para. 1, 2 PPWR). Member States may apply for an exemption from this requirement if they demonstrate a separate collection rate of at least 80% by weight in 2026 and submit an implementation plan showing how they aim to achieve the statutory 90% collection target. The DRS provisions also do not apply to certain wine, spirits, milk and liquid dairy products, which are excluded from the scope. For international groups managing beverage packaging across multiple EU markets, the timing and design of national DRS will differ, and parallel compliance with potentially 27 distinct schemes should be factored into logistics and cost planning. Companies should monitor Member State notifications to the Commission and engage early with the competent authorities and scheme administrators in their principal markets.

Although non-EU manufacturers selling packaged products to importers for the EU market are not directly subject to the PPWR, their products will in practice need to meet PPWR requirements if they are to be placed on the EU market by an importer, thereby extending the regulation’s practical reach beyond the EU.

Importantly, the manufacturer bears primary responsibility for product compliance with the PPWR, even where the relevant compliance information is held by upstream packaging suppliers. Manufacturers should therefore review their supply agreements to ensure enforceable rights to obtain data, conduct audits and seek indemnities from suppliers, who are required under Article 16 para. 1 PPWR to provide the underlying documentation and may not withhold it.

4. EPR REMAINS NATIONAL IN OPERATION

The PPWR expands and harmonises the existing EPR regime for packaging, but it does not establish a single, EU wide EPR framework. It instead overlays harmonised EU requirements on national registration, reporting, fee and enforcement structures, which continue to apply in each Member State in which the packaging becomes waste. The obligations set out below already apply and are, in substance, mostly already set out in the existing national systems; further harmonisation and extension will follow in the coming years, in each case dependent on the outstanding EU acts and on the corresponding national implementing legislation, which is at very different stages across the 27 Member States.

• Authorised representative. A producer supplying end users directly must appoint an authorised representative for EPR purposes in each Member State of destination, and Member States may extend that requirement to producers established in third countries. Under the Environmental Omnibus proposal of 10 December 2025 (COM(2025) 982 final), the obligation would be suspended until 2035 for producers established in the Union, while remaining unaffected for third-country producers. The proposal is still subject to approval by the European Parliament and the Council; in May 2026 the Parliament published its draft reports (Procedure files 2025/0395(COD) and 2025/0396(COD)), which propose to confine the exemption to micro and small enterprises. The ENVI Committee is scheduled to vote on 1 October 2026. Until the legislative process has been completed, the obligation must be treated as fully applicable.
• Registration. Packaging may not be made available in a Member State unless the producer, or its EPR authorised representative, is registered there. No Member State has yet established a register in the harmonised format: the implementing act under Article 44 para. 14 PPWR was due by 12 February 2026 but remains pending, and Member States will have a further 18 months from its adoption to set up aligned registers. Registration therefore continues to run through the existing national systems, which differ considerably in form and accessibility. Of the 27 Member States, 16 currently appear to operate a publicly available central national packaging register.
• Reporting. Producers must report packaging data to the relevant national register, generally by 1 June for the preceding calendar year. Lighter reporting applies below the 10-tonne threshold, subject to Member State rules. Data formats, filing channels and any additional national reporting cycles remain national for the time being; harmonised reporting is expected only once the aligned registers are operational, with Commission FAQ materials indicating 1 June 2030 as the current working estimate, which is not a binding legal date.
• Fees and eco-modulation. Producer contributions are payable under the national systems and cover waste management costs as well as PPWR-specific costs, including the labelling of collection receptacles and compositional surveys of mixed municipal waste. Fee levels remain specific to the individual Member State or producer responsibility organisation (PRO) and continue to be set by the competent national schemes. However, harmonised eco-modulation by recyclability performance grade will take effect only 18 months after the entry into force of the relevant acts and the corresponding national implementation; Member States may apply additional criteria.
• Authorisation. Producers as well as PROs require authorisation from the competent authority. Member States may make collective compliance through a PRO mandatory, and the competent authorities, procedures and PRO structures remain national.

Importantly, the PPWR establishes gatekeeper functions that embed compliance verification along the supply chain. Distributors, providers of online platforms (as defined in the Digital Services Act) and fulfilment service providers must verify a producer's registration information and must suspend their services where identified deficiencies are not remedied within two months. A producer that fails to comply with its EPR obligations may therefore lose its sales channel before any authority intervenes.

For international groups with e-commerce operations, these provisions have particular significance. A third-country producer selling directly to EU end consumers via an online marketplace is itself treated as a producer for EPR purposes in each Member State of destination and must register accordingly — or appoint an authorised representative to do so. Online marketplaces are required to obtain the producer's registration number before permitting sales and to make that number publicly available. Groups relying on marketplace distribution channels should therefore ensure that EPR registration is in place and evidenced before listings go live, to avoid suspension of sales.

5. CONCLUSION

The immediate enforcement risk should not be overstated. Member States must notify their penalty regimes to the Commission only by 12 February 2027, and a number of them have not yet adopted or published their national penalty rules. In the second version of its FAQs on the PPWR published on 31 July 2026, the EU Commission has also emphasized that enforcement of the PPWR should not disrupt trade flows or supply chains. Authorities should first issue a warning and allow the economic operator to take corrective action before imposing further measures. Market surveillance authorities are encouraged to adopt a supportive rather than sanction-oriented approach, allowing reasonable timelines for adaptation.

Commercial pressure could nevertheless outpace public enforcement. Our practical experience is that customers, online platforms and upstream actors are already requesting evidence of PPWR compliance from their counterparties. Companies should therefore use the coming months to consolidate their position, monitor the regulatory developments and prepare for the ongoing phasing in of obligations.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.