PPWR applies: Packaging Regulation (EU) 2025/40 in force

Since 12 August 2026 the EU Packaging Regulation (EU) 2025/40 - the PPWR - has been generally applicable. It entered into force on 11 February 2025 and replaces the Packaging Directive 94/62/EC. Being a regulation, it applies directly in every member state, without a national transposition act.

What applies since then

Packaging is treated in regulatory terms like a product. Applicable now are, among other things:

• substance restrictions, in particular the limit values for PFAS in food-contact packaging and for heavy metals
• producer details and an identification number on or attached to the packaging
• the EU declaration of conformity for packaging
• registration of the producer in the national registers
• obligations for online marketplaces to check the information supplied by their sellers

What changes in practice

For a brand selling into the EU, responsibility moves upstream. Anyone who first makes packaging available in a member state counts as the producer there and needs registration, an identification number and a robust declaration of conformity - even where the packaging is bought in. That presupposes information from the supply chain: material composition per packaging component, evidence on substance limits, weights.

For sellers on marketplaces there is the added point that the platform has to request this information and check that it is plausible. Missing producer data leads in practice to listing problems faster than to official proceedings.

What does not change

PPWR labelling is not a Digital Product Passport. The DPP under the Ecodesign Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 describes the product; PPWR labelling describes the packaging. Two legal acts, two timeline logics, two chains of responsibility - an article may end up carrying both.

Also unchanged: the harmonised sorting label does not yet apply. It depends on an implementing act that the Commission should have adopted by 12 August 2026 and that had not been issued at the beginning of September 2026. Until then, the existing material codes under Decision 97/129/EC remain permitted.

Which labelling obligation applies when is set out in the guide PPWR: labelling and QR code obligations for packaging.