Search every question across sub-FAQs

PPWR has a specific manufacturer edge case for micro-enterprises. If a micro-enterprise has packaging or a packaged product designed or manufactured under its own name or trademark, the supplier can be treated as the manufacturer where the supplier is located in the same Member State for the definition of manufacturer, or in the Union for Article 15 manufacturer obligations.

That does not remove the need for conformity evidence. It changes which party is treated as manufacturer for the relevant PPWR duty, so the micro-enterprise and supplier should document the supplier relationship, location, product or packaging identity, and the Article 15 evidence handoff.

Normally, an importer or distributor that places packaging on the market under its own name or trademark, or modifies packaging in a way that could affect compliance, is treated as a manufacturer. PPWR adds a micro-enterprise edge case: if that importer or distributor is a micro-enterprise and the supplier is located in the Union, the supplier is considered to be the manufacturer for Article 15.

This is a narrow allocation rule, not permission to ignore compliance. The file should show the own-brand or modification facts, the micro-enterprise basis, the Union supplier, and which party will hold and provide the Article 15 documentation if an authority asks.

The main edge cases are limited and fact-specific. Member States may allow micro-enterprises to keep using the Annex V point 3 packaging formats only where it has been demonstrated that avoiding the packaging or accessing reuse-system infrastructure is not technically feasible. For reuse targets, an economic operator is exempt for a calendar year only if it both makes not more than 1,000 kg of packaging available on the territory of a Member State and falls within the PPWR-referenced micro-enterprise definition.

Final distributors also have separate edge cases. A final distributor with a sales area of not more than 100 m2 is exempt from certain beverage reuse targets for that calendar year, and final distributors that are micro-enterprises are exempt from the Article 32 obligation. These are not blanket exemptions from all PPWR controls.

Small businesses should not assume producer responsibility disappears. PPWR says producer responsibility organisations must treat producers equally regardless of origin or size and avoid disproportionate burdens on producers of small quantities of packaging, including SMEs.

For data, Member States must require accurate and reliable information from economic operators while taking account of particular SME problems with detailed data. The practical control is to keep enough product, packaging, quantity, material, and market records to answer the Member State or producer responsibility organisation without inventing precision the business cannot support.

Keep a short decision record for each claimed edge case. The record should show the exact PPWR provision, the business status or threshold being relied on, the packaging units affected, the responsible party, and the date or calendar year for which the conclusion applies.

The record should also state what remains in scope. A micro-enterprise manufacturer-allocation decision, a reuse-target exemption, or an SME data-burden note can change who does what, but it does not erase every PPWR requirement that may apply to the packaging.

PPWR Article 5 sets three PFAS concentration limits for food-contact packaging. From 12 August 2026, food-contact packaging may not be placed on the market if it contains PFAS at or above any of those limits.

The limits are 25 ppb for any PFAS measured with targeted PFAS analysis, 250 ppb for the sum of PFAS measured as the sum of targeted PFAS analysis where applicable with prior degradation of precursors, and 50 ppm for PFASs including polymeric PFAS. Article 5 excludes polymeric PFAS from quantification for the 25 ppb and 250 ppb measurements.

The Article 5 PFAS restriction is framed for food-contact packaging. A packaging review should therefore start by identifying whether the packaging or packaging component is food-contact packaging before applying the PPWR PFAS thresholds.

The restriction applies to placing food-contact packaging on the market at or above the stated concentration limits. Article 5 also says the PPWR restriction applies to the extent that another Union legal act has not already prohibited placing that PFAS concentration on the market.

Keep evidence that connects each food-contact packaging item to the Article 5 threshold assessment and the Annex VII technical documentation file. The record should show the tested packaging or component, the method category used for the relevant threshold, and whether the result is below the PPWR limit.

If total fluorine exceeds 50 mg/kg, Article 5 says the manufacturer, importer, or downstream user must, upon request, provide proof of the quantity of fluorine measured as PFAS or non-PFAS so the manufacturer or importer can draw up the technical documentation.

The common mistake is treating the PPWR PFAS rule as a broad marketing claim that all PFAS in all packaging is handled the same way. Article 5 is narrower and more measurable: it gives specific concentration limits for food-contact packaging and links compliance to technical documentation.

Another mistake is recording only a pass or fail label. The useful record identifies the packaging, the food-contact scope conclusion, the threshold applied, the measured result or supplier proof, and any separate Union-law restriction considered.

For packaging in scope, Article 7 requires each plastic part of packaging placed on the market to contain a minimum percentage of recycled content recovered from post-consumer plastic waste. The calculation is not made across a whole company or brand portfolio by default; the regulation states that it is calculated per packaging type and format as an average per manufacturing plant and year.

Teams should therefore build their working records around those same boundaries: packaging type and format, plastic part, manufacturing plant, calendar year, and the evidence that the recycled content came from qualifying post-consumer plastic waste. This is the operational structure to prepare before the Commission's detailed methodology applies.

Article 7 has separate 2030 and 2040 minimum percentages for four plastic-packaging categories. For 2030, or three years from the Article 7(8) implementing act if later, the minimums are 30% for contact-sensitive PET packaging except single-use plastic beverage bottles, 10% for other contact-sensitive plastic packaging except single-use plastic beverage bottles, 30% for single-use plastic beverage bottles, and 35% for other plastic packaging.

For 2040, the same categories rise to 50%, 25%, 65%, and 65%. Teams should not copy these percentages into a product decision without first checking the packaging category, exclusions, timing rule, and any later delegated or implementing act that changes the applicable calculation or target.

Article 7 does not leave teams free to invent a final compliance methodology. It requires the Commission to adopt implementing acts by 31 December 2026 establishing the methodology for calculating and verifying the percentage of recycled content recovered from post-consumer plastic waste collected and recycled within the Union, plus the format for the Annex VII technical documentation.

The Article 7(11) transition rule says the calculation and verification for the 2030 targets must comply with that implementing act by 1 January 2029 or 24 months from the implementing act's entry into force, whichever is later. Until then, teams can prepare data structures and evidence using Article 7's boundaries, but should keep the method change-controlled and update it when the implementing act is adopted.

Before running the percentage check, confirm that the packaging is actually subject to Article 7(1) or (2). Article 7 excludes listed medical, veterinary, food-contact, compostable, dangerous-goods, infant and young-child food, and medicinal-product-related packaging cases, and it also excludes food-contact plastic packaging where the recycled-content quantity would threaten human health and breach Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004.

Article 7 also excludes any plastic part representing less than 5% of the total weight of the whole packaging unit. If an exception is used, keep the legal basis and evidence in the same technical file as the calculation records, because Article 7 requires manufacturers or importers to demonstrate compliance in the technical information referred to in Annex VII.

A practical record should show the Article 7 path from classification to evidence. It should identify the packaging unit, each plastic part assessed, the Article 7 category, manufacturing plant, year, recycled-content input, post-consumer plastic waste basis, applicable exception checks, and the method version used.

The record should also flag whether the final Commission implementing-act methodology has been applied. If not, mark the result as a planning or readiness calculation, not as a final Article 7 verification.

Packaging placed on the market from 11 February 2025 is reusable only if it satisfies all Article 11 conditions. The package must be conceived, designed, and placed on the market to be re-used multiple times, designed for as many rotations as possible under normally predictable use, and capable of emptying, unloading, refilling, reloading, and reconditioning without losing its intended function.

The reusable claim also has to preserve health, safety, hygiene, product quality, traceability, safety information, and end-of-life recyclability. A thicker single-use pack, a returnable shipping container with no collection route, or a marketing claim without technical documentation should not be treated as enough.

Economic operators who make reusable packaging available in a Member State for the first time must ensure a re-use system is in place in that Member State. The system must include an incentive to collect the packaging and meet Annex VI requirements. Use of an existing compliant re-use system can satisfy that obligation.

Economic operators that make use of reusable packaging must participate in one or more re-use systems, ensure the systems meet Annex VI Part A, and ensure packaging is reconditioned under Annex VI Part B before it is offered again for use by end users. Closed loop users also have to return packaging to collection points approved by the system operator.

Reusable packaging placed on the market from 12 February 2029, or 30 months after the relevant implementing act enters into force if later, must carry a label telling users that the packaging is reusable. More information on reusability, the available re-use system, and collection points must be provided through a QR code or another standardised, open digital data carrier, unless the Article 12 derogation for open loop systems without a system operator applies.

For the take-away sector, final distributors in the HORECA sector that sell hot or cold beverages or ready-prepared food in take-away packaging must, by 12 February 2028, give consumers the option to obtain those products in reusable packaging within a re-use system. They must tell consumers at the point of sale and offer the reusable-packaging option at no higher cost and under no less favourable conditions than the same product in single-use packaging.

Keep evidence that proves both sides of the claim: the packaging qualifies as reusable and the operational system makes re-use possible in practice. The file should connect Article 11 technical information, Article 26 system compliance, Article 27 participation and reconditioning, Annex VI governance, and any Article 12 labelling or Article 33 take-away obligation that applies.

The practical risk is using reusable language before the system is real. A defensible file should show who operates the system, who participates, how packaging returns, how reconditioning works, what data is collected, and when the team will review the file after delegated or implementing acts change the details.

Under Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2025/40, service packaging is an item designed and intended to be filled at the point of sale in order to dispense the product. The point-of-sale filling fact matters more than the commercial name used by the supplier.

Teams should classify each relevant item by its actual use: whether it is filled at the point of sale, whether it performs a packaging function, and whether it is single-use or reusable.

Take-away packaging is a defined subset of service packaging. It covers service packaging filled at attended points of sale with beverages or ready-prepared food that are packaged for transportation and immediate consumption at another location without further preparation, and that are typically consumed from the packaging.

That means a restaurant, cafe, canteen, or similar HORECA workflow should not stop at the generic service packaging classification. It should also decide whether the facts meet the take-away packaging definition.