PPWR · packaging and packaging waste

Regulation (EU) 2025/40 has applied since 12 August 2026.

The registers that carry it are not all open yet.

A marketplace or a customer asked you for a packaging EPR number, and the trail led here. This page carries the reference you will be asked to quote, what the text actually changed for a non-resident seller, and the part usually left out — what is not in place behind it yet.

  • Regulation (EU) 2025/40The reference to quote, every time
  • 12 August 2026Applies from this date, in every member state
  • RegulationNot a directive — no national transposition
  • Article 45(3)The authorised representative basis, for packaging
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What the text changed

A regulation lands on a date. A register opens when it opens.

Extended producer responsibility — EPR — makes whoever first places a packaged product on a national market pay for the waste it becomes. Regulation (EU) 2025/40 is the European text behind the packaging half of that, and what matters most about it is not what it says. It is how it applies.

  • A regulation, not a directive

    A directive has to be written into national law before it reaches you. A regulation does not: it applies in every member state on the same day, in the same words. Nothing had to be transposed for Regulation (EU) 2025/40 to reach your shipments.

  • The date is fixed, the register is not

    The text has applied since 12 August 2026. A national register is administration and software, and it moves at its own pace. That gap is where a non-resident seller sits today — the obligation lands before the place to file it does.

  • The number is what gets cited

    Authorities and schemes write Regulation (EU) 2025/40, not the acronym. We put the reference next to PPWR everywhere it appears on this site, and a question you send to a register should carry it too.

  • It names the representative

    Article 45(3) is the basis for the authorised representative on packaging — an entity established in the country of sale, mandated to carry a non-resident seller’s obligations there. It is the only article our sources document, and it is the only one we cite.

Directive 94/62/EC is the earlier packaging framework, and one of our country sites still cites it. We do not publish a repeal date for it, because none of our sources carries one. See what a representative does

What is not in place yet

The obligation arrived before the register did.

A regulation binds on its date, because it does not have to be turned into national law first. A register is administration and software, and it does not work that way. Between the two there is a gap, and you are standing in it.

1 of 10 — the local entry points where we have read the packaging register source ourselves.

  • ItalySource read

    RENAP, the national register, carries WEEE, batteries and tyres. It does not carry packaging yet, and the PPWR register is not operational.

    epritalia.com, reviewed 14 August 2026

In the other 9 countries we run, we hold no reviewed source on the state of the packaging register. That is a gap in what we publish — never a statement that you owe nothing there.

  • Spain
  • Portugal
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • France
  • Germany
  • Netherlands
  • Poland
  • Greece

shippeu.com is a private service. It is not an authority, a register or a collective scheme.

What it doesn't change

One European text. Still one filing per country.

This is the reading that costs the most: a European regulation applies everywhere, so there must be one place to file. There is not, and nothing on this page should let you believe otherwise.

  • You still register country by country Every country in our coverage table runs its own register, its own scheme and its own declaration calendar. One European text has not made one European filing.
  • A register is not a scheme Being on the national register does not make you a member of a scheme, and paying a scheme does not put you on the register. Both are still required, and they are still two separate acts.
  • This is packaging, and packaging only PPWR covers packaging and packaging waste. Your WEEE, battery and textile obligations sit under other texts and other registers, and they do not move with this one.

Your obligation doesn't wait for the register to open.

Tell us where you are registered and where you ship. You will get an indicative map of what you owe, on screen, and a person reads it before anyone quotes you anything.

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Source review

Figures on this page come from published guidance. Last source review: 14 August 2026. Rules change — the scope check is reviewed by a person before any quote.

Only one article of Regulation (EU) 2025/40 appears on this page, Article 45(3), because it is the only one our sources document. We publish no target, no threshold and no deadline out of it either, for exactly the same reason.