The PPWR (Regulation (EU) 2025/40, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation) replaces the old Packaging Directive. The difference matters: a directive needed each member state to transpose it into national law, on its own timeline; a regulation applies directly and identically across the EU the moment its dates land. It entered into force on 11 February 2025, and its core obligations became applicable on 12 August 2026.
What changed on 12 August 2026
Three things landed on that date, all enforceable now:
- Material and space efficiency. Packaging has to be minimised to what protects and delivers the goods. The concrete rule everyone quotes: e-commerce parcels may not exceed 40% empty space, unless technically unavoidable.
- PFAS restricted in food-contact packaging. Limits of 25 ppb for any single PFAS substance, 250 ppb combined, and 50 ppm total organic fluorine.
- Specific single-use formats banned outright — small-portion hospitality packaging (condiment sachets, mini toiletries) and thin plastic wrap around small quantities of loose fruit and vegetables (under 1.5 kg).
A conformity assessment and declaration of conformity is now required for packaging placed on the market, and a reuse system must be in place wherever reusable packaging is used.
What's still coming
The PPWR phases in further requirements over several years: harmonised labelling becomes fully applicable on 12 August 2028, and recycled-content and reuse targets phase in between 2027 and 2030 and beyond. 12 August 2026 is the floor, not the finish line.
The importer's duty — this will feel familiar
PPWR builds in the same structure as REACH's "only representative": under Article 45, a producer that isn't established in the EU member state where its packaging first reaches users must appoint an authorised representative there — one per member state, not a single EU-wide appointment — to handle extended producer responsibility (EPR) registration, packaging data reporting and fee payments.
Where no authorised representative is in place, the compliance duty falls on the EU importer who places the goods on the market. If you import packaged goods from a non-EU brand that hasn't sorted this out, that liability is now yours by default — exactly the position REACH puts an importer in for chemicals without an only representative.
What it means in practice
Anyone shipping e-commerce parcels into the EU should already be re-checking void-fill and box sizing against the 40% rule. Anyone importing packaged goods from outside the EU — under their own name or as an unbranded reseller — should confirm whether the producer has an authorised representative in each EU country the goods reach, or accept that the EPR registration and reporting duty defaults to them as importer.
Official sources: European Commission — Packaging and packaging waste · EUR-Lex — Regulation (EU) 2025/40. Related: Reach · Importing Into The Netherlands · Customs · Warehousing