Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (PPWR) entered into force on 11 February 2025 and applies from 12 August 2026, and it splits accountability for every packaging unit sold in the EU between two roles: the manufacturer that designs and signs off conformity, and the producer that pays the extended producer responsibility (EPR) fees in the Member State where the packaging becomes waste. The European Commission's draft guidance is explicit that these 'manufacturer', 'producer' and 'importer' labels do not necessarily refer to the same entity, and the allocation depends on who, in which Member State, first makes the packaging or packaged product available on the market.

That single trigger, first placing on the market, is where most cross-border supply chains misallocate liability. Get it wrong and the EPR fees, the conformity work and the Article 62 market surveillance exposure land on the wrong legal entity inside the group. Get it right and the obligations follow the flow of goods exactly as PPWR intends.

The single trigger that decides who carries PPWR liability

If your logo or trademark appears on the packaging, or if you have designed the packaging, you are most likely the manufacturer in PPWR. The manufacturer obligations are laid out in Article 15 of the PPWR text. The regulation states that manufacturers can only place packaging on the market after ensuring that it conforms with Articles 5-12. Manufacturers draw up the technical documentation (Annex VII) and issue the declaration of conformity for their packaging items.

The producer role is anchored in Article 45 and operates per Member State. The Commission guidance describes the producer as the eligible company in the supply chain responsible for fulfilling EPR obligations in a given Member State, registering under Article 44 and paying the eco-modulated fee where the packaging is expected to become waste. If fees are paid in one Member State and a distributor later makes the packaging available for the first time in another, the fees must be reimbursed. Misreading this trigger is the most expensive error a group structure can make under PPWR, because it strands fees, double-pays in some markets and leaves the actual first-placer unregistered in others.

PPWR assigns producer obligations to whichever actor first makes packaging or packaged goods available on a Member State's market, not to whoever physically produces the packaging. The Commission's  guidance frames this as a granular question per packaging unit and per Member State, confirming that there is only one manufacturer EU-wide for a given packaging, while there can be one producer per Member State of first supply. In practice that means a single SKU can carry one EU manufacturer of record and several different producers, one for each Member State where the packaging is first supplied.

Key obligations of the manufacturer

The manufacturer carries the full design responsibility for the packaging type. Packaging must clear the substance limits in Article 5 (including the 100 mg/kg cap on lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium combined), the recyclability requirements in Article 6, the recycled content thresholds in Article 7, and the minimization rules in Article 10. PFAS limits on food-contact packaging apply from 12 August 2026 at 25 ppb for any individual PFAS, 250 ppb for the sum of targeted PFAS and 50 ppm for total PFAS including polymeric.

The documentation work must be thorough. Under Article 15(2), the manufacturer must carry out (or have carried out on its behalf) the conformity assessment, draw up the Annex VII technical file and issue the Article 39 declaration of conformity before the packaging is first made available on the EU market. Retention periods are set out in the supporting guidance: five years for single-use packaging and ten years for reusable packaging. The manufacturer also affixes batch or serial identification under Article 15(5) and its contact details under Article 15(6). When non-conformity is discovered after market placement, Article 15(8) obliges the manufacturer to take immediate corrective measures (withdrawal, recall, bringing into conformity) and to inform the market surveillance authority in the Member State of supply. Although physical packaging producers are often not manufacturers, Article 16 obliges suppliers to provide the manufacturer with the information and documentation needed to demonstrate conformity. If a supplier refuses or cannot prove packaging meets key obligations, the manufacturer's DoC is not supported by evidence and the packaging cannot be placed on the market.

If an EU manufacturer places filled packaging on their national market, they also become the producer for that Member State. Producer obligations include EPR registration with the respective national scheme, EPR fee payment and participation in any deposit-return systems applicable to its packaging.

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Importer obligations the moment packaged goods cross the EU border

An importer is any EU-established economic operator that first places packaging or packaged products from a third country on the EU market. The Commission's draft guidance is firm that 'established' means a natural or legal person incorporated in the EU, not merely a branch office. A UK supplier dispatching to a customer in the Netherlands does not import: the EU economic operator receiving the goods is the importer under PPWR.

The verification duties are dense. Under Article 18, the importer must place on the market only packaging that conforms to Articles 5 to 12, and must verify before placement that the non-EU manufacturer has carried out the conformity assessment, prepared the technical documentation, drawn up the declaration of conformity and affixed the required labelling and identification. Article 18(7) and 18(8) require the importer to keep a copy of the DoC available for market surveillance authorities and to provide all information and documentation in electronic form within ten days of a reasoned request. The retention windows mirror those of the manufacturer: five years for single-use, ten years for reusable.

What this means operationally is that the importer absorbs the supplier-due-diligence work that a domestic manufacturer would handle in-house. Recycled-content evidence, recyclability grade calculations, substance test reports, supplier conformity declarations: all of it has to arrive from the non-EU manufacturer in a form that survives an Article 62 market surveillance request. Where a non-EU manufacturer's packaging fails a recyclability or recycled-content threshold after import, the importer is the party authorities act against, not the foreign supplier. The risk is enforceable: as Germany's packaging register notes, retailers that fail to participate own-brand or imported packaging with a system by 12 August 2026 face a distribution ban without any transition period.

The importer is also the producer in each Member State where it first makes the packaging available. That triggers EPR registration in every such Member State, fee modulation per Article 45, and reconciliation if the goods are later resold across a national border by a downstream distributor.

The grey zones: private label, drop-shipping and intra-EU resale

Three scenarios cause the most allocation errors, and each is addressed explicitly in the regulation.

Private label is the first. Article 21 contains the deemed-manufacturer rule: where an importer or distributor places packaging on the market under its own name or trademark, or modifies packaging in a way that could affect compliance, that party is considered the manufacturer and is subject to Article 15 in full. A contract packer named on the artwork does not share the manufacturer's obligations. There is one exception: under Article 21, if the 'manufacturer' is a micro-enterprise (fewer than 10 employees and turnover or balance sheet at or below EUR 2 million) and the supplier of the packaged product is located in the EU, the supplier is treated as the PPWR manufacturer.

Cross-border e-commerce is the second. PPWR extends producer status to online marketplace operators and fulfillment service providers where the seller is not established in the destination Member State. The fulfillment service provider that picks, packs and ships the order into a Member State becomes the producer there if the importer behind the listing has no establishment in that market.

Intra-EU resale is the third. A pure distributor that resells sealed, unmodified packaging is not a manufacturer or importer, but it is not free of duties either. If a distributor is the first to make a packaged product available in a Member State where no other producer is registered, the distributor inherits producer status in that Member State. Group structures where an EU sister entity 'imports' on paper from a non-EU parent do not escape the trigger: the EU entity is the importer regardless of internal transfer pricing.

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Mapping each SKU to one accountable party before August 2026

Role determination must be done granularly. The Commission guidance and supporting analysis are unambiguous that role determination is per packaging and per Member State, and blanket company-level classification is no longer permissible. That is the single biggest shift from the old Directive 94/62/EC regime, which most groups handled at entity level. A practical mapping for PPWR looks like this:

1. Build a SKU-level register that tags each packaging unit with three fields: the manufacturer of record (EU legal entity that signs theDoC), the country of first supply and the producer entity registered for EPR in that country.
2. For each SKU sourced from outside the EU, identify the EU importer of record and confirm it has separate legal personality, not just a branch office or VAT registration.
3. Renegotiate supplier contracts so non-EU manufacturers warrant Article 5 to 12 conformity, deliver Annex VII technical files in the required format and indemnify the EU importer for findings under Article 62 market surveillance.
4. Align EPR registration numbers across Member States with the entity identified as producer per SKU, so the customs importer of record and the registered EPR producer point to the same legal entity.
5. Where the same group both manufactures inside the EU and imports from outside, separate the two flows in the compliance file so design conformity duties (Article 15) and importer verification duties (Article 18) do not get blended into a single workflow that satisfies neither.
6. For own-brand SKUs, confirm whether Article 21 reclassifies a buyer or distributor as manufacturer, and whether the micro-enterprise carve-out applies.

The technical file work compounds this. The harmonized labelling regime under PPWR phases in between 2028 and 2029, with only recyclability grades A to C marketable from January 2030 and only grades A and B from January 2038. Although the grades only come into force in 2030, packaging redesign processes can take a long time, and packaging with less than 70% recyclability should be addressed sooner rather than later.

For broader cross-regulation context on how PPWR interacts with EUDR, CSRD and CBAM, the Coolset guide to EU supply chain regulations sets out where the data demands overlap and how to avoid duplicating evidence collection.

How to get started

Scope your packaging portfolio. For each one, mark whether it is manufacturer-placed (filled or supplied by an EU-established entity) or importer-placed (cleared customs into the EU as a packaged product), and write down the EU legal entity that holds that role. Then check the EPR registration in every Member State of first supply against that designation. Where the customs importer of record and the registered EPR producer are different entities, you have a misalignment to resolve before 12 August 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Is the manufacturer always the factory that physically produces the packaging?

No. Under PPWR, the manufacturer is the EU-established entity whose name or trademark appears on the packaging, or that orders and decides the design. A contract packer or printer named on the artwork does not assume manufacturer duties under Article 15.

Can a non-EU company be the importer under PPWR?

No. The importer must be a natural or legal person incorporated in the EU. The Commission's draft guidance confirms that a branch of a non-EU entity without separate legal personality, or mere VAT registration, does not qualify as an importer. Companies without EU-representation can be represented by an authorized representative.

What happens if EPR fees are paid in the wrong Member State?

If fees are paid in one Member State and a distributor later first makes the packaging available in a different Member State, the fees must be reimbursed and re-paid where the packaging actually becomes waste, per the Commission's interpretative guidance on Article 45.

Does PPWR require CE marking on packaging?

No. The declaration of conformity under Article 39 is a standalone obligation; CE marking is not required on packaging under PPWR. The DoC must be drawn up by the manufacturer and held available for market surveillance authorities.

What is the deadline for resolving manufacturer and importer roles?

The first wave of PPWR obligations apply from 12 August 2026. These include heavy metals and PFAS limits, as well as basic recyclability requirements. From 2030 these obligations will expand to include minimization, recycled content and more.