{
  "type": "problem",
  "slug": "packaging-producer-or-not",
  "lang": "en",
  "url": "https://www.conphora.com/solutions/problem/packaging-producer-or-not/",
  "markdown": "https://www.conphora.com/solutions/problem/packaging-producer-or-not.md",
  "title": "We are unsure whether we are a packaging producer",
  "description": "How the PPWR defines a packaging producer: who makes packaging available first in a country, deliveries to end users abroad, and unpacking.",
  "answer": "Under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (EU) 2025/40, a producer is the manufacturer, importer or distributor that first makes packaging, or packaged products, available on a Member State's territory, including by distance sales directly to end users in another country, or that unpacks packaged products without being an end user. Work it out per country and per packaging flow, because the answer decides where you register and pay.",
  "theme": {
    "id": "labelling-packaging",
    "label": "Labelling and packaging"
  },
  "roles": [
    {
      "id": "manufacturer",
      "label": "Manufacturer"
    },
    {
      "id": "importer",
      "label": "Importer"
    },
    {
      "id": "online-seller",
      "label": "Online seller"
    }
  ],
  "regulations": [
    "PPWR"
  ],
  "path": [
    "regulation-library",
    "knowledge-articles"
  ],
  "trigger": "A packaging compliance scheme, a marketplace or a customer asks for your packaging producer registration number",
  "keep": null,
  "why": [
    {
      "text": "The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (EU) 2025/40 separates two questions that are easy to mix up: who manufactures packaging, and who is the producer for extended producer responsibility. The manufacturer is any person that manufactures packaging or a packaged product; where a person has packaging or a packaged product designed or manufactured under its own name or trade mark, that person is the manufacturer, even if another trade mark is visible (Article 3(1), point (13)(a)).",
      "sources": [
        1
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "The producer is defined by the first making available in a country. A producer is any manufacturer, importer or distributor to whom one of five cases applies, whatever the selling technique, including distance contracts (Article 3(1), point (15)). Points (a) and (b) cover a company established in a Member State that first makes available, from within and on that same territory, transport, service or primary production packaging, or products packaged in other packaging. Points (c) and (d) cover a company established in a Member State or in a third country that first makes such packaging or packaged products available on the territory of another Member State directly to end users. Point (e) covers a company established in a Member State that unpacks packaged products without being an end user, unless someone else is the producer under points (a) to (d).",
      "sources": [
        1
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "The term ‘distance contract’ is taken from the Consumer Rights Directive (Article 3(1), point (14), referring to Article 2(7) of Directive 2011/83/EU): a contract between a trader and a consumer concluded under an organised distance sales scheme, with the exclusive use of means of distance communication, such as a web shop. Because the definition applies irrespective of the selling technique used, other sales at a distance are not excluded either. An importer is a person established in the Union that places packaging from a third country on the market (point (17)); a distributor is any other person in the supply chain that makes packaging available (point (18)).",
      "sources": [
        1,
        2
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "There is a rule for very small brand owners. Where the person that has packaging made under its own name or trade mark is a micro-enterprise as defined in Recommendation 2003/361/EC as applicable on 11 February 2025, and its packaging supplier is in the same Member State, the supplier is the manufacturer (Article 3(1), point (13)(b)). Article 15(12) extends this for the manufacturer duties where the supplier is located in the Union.",
      "sources": [
        1
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "Being a producer has consequences in each country. Producers register in every Member State where they make packaging available for the first time or unpack packaged products (Article 44(2)) and may not sell there until they are registered (Article 44(4)). They have extended producer responsibility under the schemes of Articles 8 and 8a of Directive 2008/98/EC for that packaging (Article 45(1)), and may entrust a producer responsibility organisation with it (Article 46(1)).",
      "sources": [
        1
      ]
    }
  ],
  "steps": [
    {
      "name": "Trace each packaging flow to the first time it is made available",
      "text": "For every product line, follow the packaging from the supplier to the end user, country by country. Note who first makes the packaging, or the packaged product, available on the territory of each Member State, and whether that company is established there.",
      "item": "regulation-library"
    },
    {
      "name": "Apply the five producer cases",
      "text": "You are a producer if you are established in a Member State and first make packaging or packaged products available there; if you sell directly to end users in another Member State, from the EU or from a third country; or if you unpack packaged products without being an end user, unless someone else is already the producer."
    },
    {
      "name": "Treat transport, service and production packaging as their own case",
      "text": "The definition names transport packaging, service packaging and primary production packaging separately from other packaging, single-use or reusable. Shipping cartons, pallet wrap and bags filled at the counter are therefore counted, not only the retail box."
    },
    {
      "name": "Check your role as manufacturer as well",
      "text": "Having packaging or a packaged product made under your own name or trade mark makes you the manufacturer, even if another trade mark is visible. A micro-enterprise that sources its packaging from a supplier in the same Member State is the exception: the supplier is then the manufacturer. For the manufacturer duties in Article 15, a supplier anywhere in the Union is enough.",
      "item": "knowledge-articles"
    },
    {
      "name": "Record the result and the countries it applies to",
      "text": "Write a one-page decision per country: the case in the producer definition that applies, the packaging types, and the expected yearly tonnage. That note drives registration, reporting and the choice of a producer responsibility organisation."
    }
  ],
  "documents": [
    {
      "name": "A producer decision per Member State",
      "from": "You, from your sales and logistics data",
      "ground": "PPWR Article 3(1), point (15)"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yearly packaging quantities per country and material",
      "from": "You, or your producer responsibility organisation",
      "ground": "PPWR Article 44(7) and (8), Annex IX Part B"
    }
  ],
  "risks": [
    {
      "title": "No sales before registration",
      "text": "Producers may not make packaging or packaged products available on a Member State's territory for the first time, or unpack them, if they or their authorised representative for extended producer responsibility are not registered there (PPWR Article 44(4)).",
      "source": 1
    },
    {
      "title": "Marketplaces and fulfilment providers ask for proof",
      "text": "Online platforms within the Digital Services Act's trader rules (not micro or small platforms, unless designated as very large) obtain your registration number and a self-certification before allowing you to offer packaging or packaged products to consumers, and fulfilment service providers suspend their service when information stays incomplete (PPWR Article 45(4) and (8)).",
      "source": 1
    },
    {
      "title": "Distributors check the register",
      "text": "Before making packaging available, a distributor verifies that the producer subject to extended producer responsibility is registered (PPWR Article 19(2)(a)).",
      "source": 1
    }
  ],
  "faq": [
    {
      "q": "We sell only to businesses. Can we be a producer?",
      "a": "Yes. The definition covers making packaging available for the first time on a Member State's territory, without limiting it to consumer sales; only the cases of selling into another Member State are limited to sales directly to end users (PPWR Article 3(1), point (15)(a) to (d))."
    },
    {
      "q": "We are outside the EU and ship directly to consumers. Are we the producer?",
      "a": "Yes. A manufacturer, importer or distributor established in a third country that makes packaging or packaged products available for the first time in a Member State directly to end users is a producer (PPWR Article 3(1), point (15)(c) and (d))."
    },
    {
      "q": "We unpack goods and repack them. Does that make us a producer?",
      "a": "It can. A company established in a Member State that unpacks packaged products without being an end user is a producer, unless another person is the producer under points (a) to (d) (PPWR Article 3(1), point (15)(e))."
    },
    {
      "q": "Is the producer always the manufacturer?",
      "a": "No. The manufacturer is defined by who makes or brands the packaging (Article 3(1), point (13)); the producer by who first makes it available in a country (point (15)). An importer or distributor can be the producer for packaging another company manufactured."
    },
    {
      "q": "Do we have to use a producer responsibility organisation?",
      "a": "The regulation allows producers to entrust one with their obligations, and lets Member States make that mandatory (PPWR Article 46(1)). Check the rule in each country where you are a producer."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste",
      "publisher": "EUR-Lex",
      "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2025/40/oj",
      "accessed": "2026-10-04"
    },
    {
      "title": "Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights (consolidated text of 27 September 2026)",
      "publisher": "EUR-Lex",
      "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02011L0083-20260927",
      "accessed": "2026-10-04"
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "packaging-rules-meaning",
    "epr-registration-country",
    "which-role-are-we",
    "dropshipping-responsibility",
    "weee-registration"
  ],
  "reviewer": "Conphora compliance team",
  "reviewedAt": "2026-10-05",
  "notice": "General information, not legal advice."
}