Application of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR): Further practical guidance by new EU Commission FAQs
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As of 12 August 2026, the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2025/40, “PPWR”) directly applies across the EU. On 3 August 2026, the European Commission published an updated set of Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) on the PPWR, which complements the Commission’s existing Guidance Document of June 2026, and seeks to resolve interpretive questions confronting manufacturers of packaged goods and other businesses in the packaging supply chain. Although not legally binding, the Guidance Document and the updated FAQs provide a significant indication of the Commission’s interpretation of the PPWR and may inform national authorities’ enforcement approaches.
PPWR at a Glance
The PPWR establishes a harmonised framework for packaging and packaging waste in the EU and replaces the former Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (Directive 94/62/EC).1 It applies broadly to packaging placed on the EU market, regardless of whether that packaging is used in industry, manufacturing, retail, logistics, or households.
The regulation sets harmonised requirements across the entire life cycle of packaging, i.e., from design and production, through use, to collection and recycling, and layers new compliance duties onto the existing supply chain of manufacturers, importers, producers, suppliers, and other economic operators. In practice, this affects a very wide range of businesses well beyond those that physically manufacture or use packaging, including consumer goods companies, retailers, logistics and e-commerce operators.
Key elements of the PPWR include:
- recyclability and recycled-content requirements (e.g. minimum recycled content in plastic packaging);
- restrictions on unnecessary packaging;
- restrictions on the use of certain substances of concern, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) in food-contact packaging;
- re-use targets for specific formats, together with restrictions on certain single-use and unnecessary packaging formats;
- labelling obligations (e.g. containing information on the composition of the packaging);
- conformity assessment procedures and the drafting of an EU declaration of conformity (both essentially the responsibilities of the manufacturer under the PPWR); and
- Extended Producer Responsibility (“EPR”), under which producers (which may be manufacturers, but also importers or distributors) bear responsibility, including financial responsibility, for the collection, sorting and recycling of the packaging they place on the market, generally connected to the registration with, and participation in, a national or regional producer responsibility scheme.
Since its initial entry into force in February 2025, the interpretation of the PPWR has posed a significant challenge for many businesses inside and outside the EU. To provide further guidance, the European Commission published a first set of Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) in March 20262 and then a Guidance Document in June 20263. However, the publication of an even more extensive, updated set of FAQs on 3 August 2026 shows that the Commission's position on many questions remained open shortly before the PPWR’s application date.
We highlight below selected points from the updated FAQs exemplifying the practical effects that the updated FAQs may have and that are relevant for manufacturers, fillers, importers, distributors and logistics providers.
PPWR “Manufacturer” Status: Branding as Key Indicator
The PPWR contains core compliance duties for the “manufacturer” of packaging, including the conformity assessment and underlying technical documentation. Correctly identifying the manufacturer is therefore essential, and the updated FAQs provide a broader view of who qualifies as the “manufacturer” of branded and unbranded packaging than some businesses had assumed, making this classification a priority action point.
As a general rule, where packaging bears a name or trademark, the “manufacturer” will be interpreted as the economic operator under whose name or trademark the packaging is placed on the market. This remains the case even where another operator physically manufactures or fills the packaging, but the branded operator has the decisive contractual authority to determine the packaging’s characteristics. Where packaging does not bear a name or trademark, the “manufacturer” is generally the operator that orders the packaging and determines the packaging’s design specifications. In the case of generic transport packaging, this will usually be the operator that physically produces the packaging.4
For contract manufacturing arrangements specifically, the Commission takes the view that the company ordering packaging can qualify as the “manufacturer” if it simply chooses a standardised packaging option from a supplier’s catalogue, without requesting any design changes, provided that the packaging carries its branding.5 This is a wider reading than some businesses may have assumed, and merits a fresh look at supply arrangements where packaging is sourced from a third-party supplier under a group brand.
The Commission clarifies its view in relation to another point of practical relevance: Adding a sticker to a (cardboard) box solely for shipment purposes in the context of transport packaging is not necessarily “branding” and does not re-qualify the party shipping the goods as the “manufacturer” for the purposes of the PPWR.6
Practical effect: Businesses should assess the packaging to which they apply their name or trademark, as doing so may cause them to qualify as the manufacturer under the PPWR with the corresponding compliance responsibilities, even where a third party has a role in the design, production or filling of the packaging.
PPWR Manufacturer Status for Flexible Transport Packaging
A further practical example from the updated FAQs concerns flexible transport packaging, such as stretch film and pallet wrap. Prior to the publication of the updated FAQs, a view had gained some traction that such flexible packaging reaches its “final form” only once it is actually applied, i.e., in the case of pallet wrap once wrapped around goods, meaning the entity applying the wrap would be the manufacturer under the PPWR and not the entity manufacturing the wrap roll.7
However, the European Commission takes a different view in the updated FAQs, expressly stating that, for instance, stretch wrap for stabilisation of packaged products on pallets should be considered packaging when it is sold on a roll, even if it is subsequently cut to wrap pallet loads. Where the wrap is unbranded, the Commission identifies the manufacturer as the company that physically manufactures the wrap and places it on the market as packaging, rather than the company that purchases the wrap and subsequently uses it to secure goods.8 A counter-argument may be that the physical producer of the wraps does not (fully) control how the user applies the packaging; however, the Commission’s view seems consistent with the wording of the PPWR itself, which treats pallet wrappings and straps as an illustrative transport packaging format.
Practical effect: The updated FAQs show a tendency in the European Commission’s interpretation that – subject to specific circumstances which need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis – the physical producer of transport packaging will be the “manufacturer” under the PPWR, and therefore responsible for the declaration of conformity and technical documentation. Businesses assuming or denying their manufacturer status for transport packaging should revisit their assessments in light of the updated FAQs and carefully consider how the packaging is supplied and used.
Transitional Relief: Stock Already Produced before 12 August 2026
The Commission’s updated FAQs offer some transitional relief: packaging that was already manufactured and held in stock, but had not yet been placed on the market by 12 August 2026, does not need to be destroyed, re-manufactured or re-labelled to comply with the new manufacturer identification requirements.9
Where the necessary supplier information for such pre-existing stock is missing (for example because a supplier no longer exists or is unwilling to cooperate), the manufacturer is expected to make its best efforts to obtain it, or otherwise to make its own reasonable assessment.10
Practical effect: Businesses relying on the transitional relief for pre-12 August 2026 stock should ensure that adequate documentation is in place in relation to the manufacturer identification requirements, including the ability to link accompanying documents to specific packaging batches.
What This Means in Practice
Companies that manufacture, package, import or distribute goods into the EU should use the start of the direct application of the PPWR on 12 August 2026, together with the updated FAQs of 3 August 2026, as an occasion to revisit their obligations. Significant practical questions may need a (re-)assessment and further action, in particular which economic operator qualifies as the manufacturer under the PPWR in light of branding practices and contractual arrangements.
1 In Germany, for instance, the Verpackungsgesetz (VerpackG) had implemented the former Packaging Directive into national law. As of 12 August 2026, the VerpackG has been replaced by the Verpackungsrecht-Durchführungsgesetz (VerpackDG), which supplements the directly applicable PPWR in specific areas, such as national authority competencies, EPR duties and the operation of the national register. Other EU Member States are likewise adopting supplementary legislation.
2 European Commission, DG ENV, Unit B01, Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), Frequently Asked Questions, March 2026, https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/35277381-29a0-11f1-8803-01aa75ed71a1/language-en.
3 Published on 10 June 2026 in the Official Journal of the European Union, C/2026/2084, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/C/2026/3084/oj.
4 European Commission, DG ENV, Unit B01, Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), Frequently Asked Questions, August 2026, p. 9, https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/faq-packaging-and-packaging-waste-regulation-ppwr_en.
5 Ibid., p. 9.
6 Ibid., p. 9.
7 See for instance: Martin Engelmann, Wer ist wer in der PPWR? (Teil 1), ZfPC 2026, 18, 21; Stiftung Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister (ZSVR), which operates Germany’s official packaging register LUCID, supports this interpretation, as stated on its website: https://www.verpackungsregister.org/en/first-steps/distinguishing-between-manufacturers-producers.
8 European Commission, DG ENV, Unit B01, Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), Frequently Asked Questions, August 2026, p. 9 .
9 Ibid., p. 36.
10 Ibid., p. 36.
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This article is prepared for the general information of interested persons. It is not, and does not attempt to be, comprehensive in nature. Due to the general nature of its content, it should not be regarded as legal advice.
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