Many directors think the PPWR does not apply to them. The regulation, they assume, targets large industrial players, plastics producers, mass-market placements. This is a misreading, and it can prove costly. European Regulation 2025/40 applies from 12 August 2026. It does not reason by company size or by sector, but by role in the chain. As soon as packaging reaches the French market, someone bears responsibility for it. The only truly useful question is therefore simple: is that someone you?

The principle: everything starts with placing on the market

The regulation speaks of neither factory nor turnover. It speaks of economic operator and of placing on the market. Placing packaging on the market, within the meaning of Article 3, means making it available for the first time on the Union market, whether for payment or free of charge. Volume does not come into it. The first item of packaging weighs as much as the millionth.

From this principle flows a central notion, that of producer. Article 3 defines it as the manufacturer, importer or distributor who is the first to make packaging or a packaged product available within the territory of a Member State. The same definition also covers anyone who unpacks products without being their end user. In other words, you can become a producer within the meaning of the PPWR without manufacturing anything at all.

The profiles directly affected

Five profiles come up again and again. Most businesses will recognise themselves in one or more of them.

The manufacturer

The manufacturer is the one who makes the packaging or the packaged product. But Article 3 goes further. A manufacturer is also anyone who has packaging designed or made under their own name or brand, whether or not another brand is visible on the product. A cosmetics brand that subcontracts its packaging, a food retailer that has its products packed: in the eyes of the regulation, these are manufacturers. As such, they carry the obligations of Article 15, among them the declaration of conformity and the technical documentation.

The importer

The importer is established in the Union and places on the market packaging that has come from a third country. Its role does not stop at bringing the goods in. Article 18 requires it to verify that the manufacturer has carried out the conformity assessment, that the labelling is compliant and that the documentation does indeed exist. For a business that buys in Asia or the United States to resell in France, this is a front-line position.

The distributor, and the private-label trap

The distributor makes the packaging available after the manufacturer or the importer. On paper, its role is lighter: check the labelling and the presence of the documents. On paper only. Article 21 contains a switch that many retailers underestimate. When a distributor places packaging on the market under its own name or brand, it is treated as the manufacturer and takes on all the obligations of Article 15. For a retailer, this covers all of its private labels. The move from mere reseller to manufacturer happens without argument, by the sole act of applying its brand.

The online seller and marketplaces

Distance selling does not dilute the principle, it reinforces it. A producer that sells online directly to the consumer remains subject to the same rules. Article 45 even adds a check for platforms: before allowing a seller to use their services, they must verify its registration on the producer register. An unregistered seller can therefore find its access to the marketplace cut off. E-commerce is not a blind spot in the PPWR. It is a checkpoint.

The brand established outside the EU

A brand based outside the Union that sells in France through a website or a marketplace escapes nothing. Two mechanisms combine. For product conformity, the obligation is carried by the importer established in the Union, under Article 18. For extended producer responsibility, Article 45 requires the appointment of an EPR authorised representative in each Member State where the packaging is placed on the market. This is the critical point for Asian and American brands that sell directly.

The situations that catch businesses out

Three cases come up often, because they take businesses by surprise.

The first is the micro-enterprise. The regulation provides a precise form of relief. When a micro-enterprise has packaging made under its brand and its supplier is located in the same Union country, it is the supplier that is treated as the manufacturer. The relief exists, but it is hedged, and it does not exempt from EPR.

The second is buying and reselling. A business that buys a packaged product in another Member State, or in a third country, then supplies it in France becomes a producer, because it is the first to make it available within French territory.

The third is the secondary brand. Applying a simple mention such as “made for” or “distributed by” to packaging is enough to trigger the reclassification of Article 21. Many subcontracting contracts fail to anticipate this.

How to know precisely where you stand

Theory has its limits. A single business often combines several roles: manufacturer for its own brand, supplier for its private labels, sometimes importer for one range. This is exactly what our EPR Responsibilities tool is there to untangle. In a few questions about your activity, your geography and your customers, it places your archetype and lists your concrete obligations. It is the quickest way to turn these definitions into a clear answer for your case.

For the overall view of the regulation, the complete PPWR guide covers every major obligation. And to place the deadlines in time, the regulatory roadmap sets them out on a timeline.

Once your role is identified, where to start

Identifying your role is not an end, it is a starting point. The role determines the obligations, and the obligations determine the schedule. Three habits apply to almost every profile.

First, check your registration on the producer register. It conditions market access and, for e-commerce, listing on platforms. Next, map your packaging and your volumes by material, because the recyclability and recycled content obligations take effect on 1 January 2030. Finally, secure your subcontracting contracts, because the Article 21 switch often turns on a forgotten clause.

EPR for commercial packaging, which begins in France on 1 July 2026, gives a very concrete foretaste of this shift. We covered it in a dedicated article.

A question about your specific situation? Write to us at contact@packaginghub.fr.