New Commission Guidelines on Packaging Regulation

The European Commission recently published a Guidance document (“Guidelines”) for Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste (“Packaging Regulation”), which entered into force on February 11, 2025, and whose general application starts on August 12, 2026.

The Packaging Regulation is one of the key pillars of the European circular economy policy within the context of the Commission’s omnibus environmental package, and it will gradually replace the previous legal framework on packaging and packaging waste. Its objective is clear: to reduce the amount of packaging waste produced, increase recyclability and reuse, harmonize requirements within the internal market, and increase the responsibility of economic operators throughout the value chain.

With these new Guidelines, the European Commission aims to respond to the queries most often raised by national authorities and economic operators, as well as to facilitate a uniform application of the new rules across the various Member States of the European Union.

We highlight here the main aspects covered by these Guidelines for companies subject to extended producer responsibility due to the placement of packaging on the market.

1.   Clarification of the concepts of “manufacturer” and “producer”

One of the main points of the document concerns the distinction between a “manufacturer” and “producer” of packaging.

The Packaging Regulation defines “manufacturer” as any natural or legal person that manufactures packaging or a packaged product, but the natural or legal person that physically produces the packaging is not necessarily the same. As a rule, the manufacturer is the operator responsible for the packaging’s compliance with sustainability, safety, and labeling requirements. This definition may be especially relevant in cases where the packaging is designed in line with a company’s specifications and carries its brand. In these situations, the company concerned may be considered the manufacturer, even though the actual production of the packaging has been subcontracted to a third party.

Similarly, importers and distributors may be considered manufacturers for the purposes of the Packaging Regulation when they place packaging on the market under their own name or trademark, or modify packaging already placed on the market in a way that could affect compliance with the Packaging Regulation requirements.

However, classification as a “producer” is essentially for the purpose of attributing the obligations arising from extended producer responsibility. In practical terms, the operator must bear the costs of collecting and recovering packaging waste in the Member State where the packaging or packaged product is made available and is likely to be converted into waste.

In the context of a crossborder product-circulation relationship, the Guidelines explain that to ascertain in which Member State the extended producer responsibility obligations apply, it must be verified where the packaging is first made available within the territory of a Member State, which in practice will normally be the location where the packaging takes place.

Consequently, the manufacturer and the producer may not always be the same economic operator, and the producer of the packaging will depend on (i) the type of packaging made available on the market, (ii) whether it is located in the same Member State where the packaging is manufactured, and (iii) whether the packaged product is sold to the end user or is later distributed. The Guidelines provide criteria and factors to consider to facilitate this identification.

This distinction is particularly relevant for groups with crossborder distribution chains, ecommerce platforms, importers, and companies that sell directly to end users in other Member States. As the Commission clarifies, in online sales, supplying directly to an end user in another Member State may trigger extended producer responsibility obligations for the entity supplying the end user in that Member State.

2.   Sustainability, recyclability, and substance restriction requirements

The Guidelines confirm that the Packaging Regulation now imposes a substantial range of sustainability requirements on packaging placed on the market in the European Union.

The general obligation to ensure that packaging is recyclable applies from August 12, 2026. However, the Commission notes that more detailed design requirements for recycling will require delegated acts, which are expected to be adopted by January 1, 2028. These requirements will apply, in principle, from January 1, 2030, or 24 months after the entry into force of the delegated acts, whichever is later.

The Guidelines also address the restriction of per- alkyl and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (”PFAS”) in packaging intended to be brought into contact with food. According to the Commission’s interpretation, food packaging placed on the market after August 12, 2026, must comply with the limits established in the Regulation for the use of this substance, while packaging placed on the market before that date may remain on the market, without any withdrawal obligation. The Commission also establishes a phased approach to compliance with PFAS limits from their effective date, based on state-of-the-art analytical capabilities and a meta-analysis of PFAS testing of the relevant matrices.

For companies in the food, retail, restaurant, catering, distribution, and consumer goods sectors, this point requires an early review of technical specifications, supply contracts, declarations of conformity, and quality control procedures.

3.   Harmonized labeling: partial end of the fragmentation between Member States

Under the Packaging Regulation, once the harmonized European Union labels become applicable, Member States will not be able to retain or introduce additional national rules imposing different or supplementary sorting instructions.

In practical terms, from August 12, 2028 ,or 24 months after the entry into force of the implementing acts defining the harmonized labels and pictograms, whichever is later, packaging placed on the market must display a harmonized label containing information on its material composition to facilitate sorting by consumers. In this regard, the Commission clarifies that the use of the established abbreviations will no longer be permitted from August 12, 2028, and that the labels for waste sorting and the labels for reusable packaging will be mandatory.

However, the Guidelines clarify that the labeling requirements do not apply, for example, to the packaging of certain products used exclusively by professional end-users in the course of their business activity, such as medicines, medical devices, or in vitro diagnostic medical devices. The Packaging Regulation also excludes transport packaging, except for ecommerce packaging, and packaging covered by deposit-refund systems.

In the case of reusable packaging, the requirement to display a label informing users that the packaging is reusable will apply from February 12, 2029, or 30 months after the entry into force of the applicable implementing act, whichever is later. With regard to existing reusable transport packaging, the Commission differentiates between two categories. Packaging placed on the market before February 11, 2025 may remain in circulation until it is withdrawn from reuse systems due to functional obsolescence or operational limitations. By contrast, packaging placed on the market between February 11, 2025 and the date the new labeling rules take effect must be adapted by February 2032.

For companies, this harmonization has a significant practical implication: Labeling can no longer be treated as an essentially national issue, thus making it easier for companies that place products on the European Union market to comply with their obligations in this respect.

Companies will have to plan the transition to the European Union’s harmonized pictograms and specifications in advance; to review packaging, artwork, stock flows, and technical documentation; and to monitor the revocation or adaptation of national rules that could create barriers to the internal market.

4.   Empty space and packaging optimization

Another point of particular practical relevance is the limitation on empty space in grouped packaging, transport packaging, and ecommerce packaging.

From January 1, 2030, or three years after the entry into force of the relevant implementing acts, whichever is later, operators filling this type of packaging must ensure that the maximum empty space ratio does not exceed 50%. The Commission is expected to establish the calculation methodology in an implementing act to be adopted by February 12, 2028.

This guidance will have a direct impact on ecommerce, logistics, fulfillment, retail and distribution operations, requiring companies to reassess packaging formats, packing processes, warehouse automation, and relationships with logistics providers.

5.   Extended producer responsibility and reporting obligations

The Guidelines reinforce the importance of the registration, reporting, and financing obligations associated with extended producer responsibility.

The identification of the packaging waste management operator subject to this responsibility must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The Commission also clarifies that Member States must specify the circumstances in which these operators must provide the required information. This includes the information needed to fulfill reporting obligations to the competent authorities.

In complex supply chains, identifying the responsible producer may depend on the type of packaging, the location where it was first made available, the existence of a direct sale to the end user, and the role played by each of the parties involved. Companies should therefore map product and packaging flows and review contractual responsibilities between manufacturers, importers, distributors, marketplaces, logistics operators, and business customers.

6.   Impact on companies operating in Portugal

For companies operating in Portugal, the Guidelines are a clear sign that preparations for the new regime must start before the general effective date of the Packaging Regulation.

Companies should review packaging portfolios, identify packaging that is subject to specific requirements, confirm each entity’s classification as a manufacturer, importer, distributor, or producer, assess compliance with extended producer responsibility, and anticipate adjustments to labeling, recyclability, reuse, and reduction of empty space.

They should also monitor the adoption of the delegated and implementing acts expected in the coming years, as many essential technical requirements—including labeling specifications, the method for calculating empty space, design criteria for recycling, and parameters applicable to reusable packaging—will be developed further through these acts.