Packaging EPR Across Several Member States: What Changes for Exporters and E-Commerce From 12 August 2026

There is an assumption that costs a great deal and comes up in almost every conversation with an exporting company: that because the PPWR is a directly applicable regulation, it also unifies EPR registration.

It does not. The regulation harmonises product requirements for packaging. Extended producer responsibility stays national, Member State by Member State. A Romanian registration covers Romania, and nothing else.

If you ship to Germany, France and Spain, you need three separate registrations, exactly as already works for electrical equipment and for batteries.

What Article 44 requires

Regulation (EU) 2025/40 requires every Member State to operate a national producer register on harmonised criteria.

The producer must be entered in that state's register before making packaging available on its market. The wording that matters: you may not make packaging available in a Member State if you, or your relevant representative, are not registered there.

This is a national system, not a single European licence.

What Article 45 requires

Article 45 sets out the extended producer responsibility obligations themselves: register in every country of sale, report the weight and material of packaging placed on that market, and pay an annual fee.

Two provisions sitting in the same article change the operating model for cross-border selling.

The first is the obligation to appoint an authorised representative for extended producer responsibility in each Member State where you first make packaging available and where you are not established.

The second is the obligation on online platforms to verify that sellers hold valid EPR registration in each country of sale. The major platforms are already building these verification systems, and the practical consequence for an unregistered seller is listing suspension.

The two kinds of representative, and why they get confused

This is the confusion that creates the largest compliance gaps.

The product conformity representative, under Article 17, is optional for non-EU manufacturers. One mandate covers the whole Union. It handles the technical file, the declaration of conformity and market surveillance requests. It is the role companies already know from other product regulations.

The extended producer responsibility representative, under Article 45, is something else entirely. It is appointed by written mandate, one per Member State of sale, and handles registration, reporting and fee payment.

A company can have zero conformity representatives and five EPR representatives at the same time. Anyone treating the two roles as one discovers the gap at the first inspection or the first listing suspension.

Where the suspension proposal stands

In December 2025 the European Commission proposed suspending the EPR authorised representative obligation until 2035 for producers established in the Union. The proposal preserves the framework for third country producers.

In 2026 the European Parliament proposed narrowing that suspension to micro and small enterprises, with a committee vote expected in autumn, meaning after the application date.

What that means for an EU company selling into other Member States: if the suspension passes in the Commission's form, you are covered. If it passes in the Parliament's form and you are not a small enterprise, you are not. Until a final decision, the prudent working assumption is that the obligation applies.

For companies established outside the Union the question does not arise. The suspension does not cover them in either version.

Where the producer role passes and where it stays

The practical rule is simple and decides whether you have obligations in a market at all.

If you sell to another economic operator, a local distributor or retailer, the producer role for that state normally passes to the recipient. You do not need to register there.

If you sell directly to the end consumer, through your own webshop or through a marketplace, the role stays with you. You need your own registration in that state.

This single distinction separates the classic exporter, managing one registration, from the online seller, managing one per market shipped to.

It is also worth checking how each state treats the absence of a representative. In some markets, national rules shift responsibility to the first local distributor or, in defined situations, to the platform. The consequence is not only a penalty for you, but a local partner discovering they have picked up an obligation they never negotiated.

What to do in practice

Start by listing the markets where your products actually reach the end consumer, not the markets where you have customers. The difference between those two lists is usually where the surprise lives.

Then check, for each market on the first list, whether you hold an active registration and whether you need a representative. Registration timelines run to weeks per country rather than days, and the procedures can run in parallel.

Prepare the data once, in a format that serves every filing: weight by material, by packaging type, by market. Each state asks for a different form but for the same substance.

Finally, check what the platforms you sell on require. Registration numbers have to be uploaded to seller accounts, and verification is automated.

Frequently asked questions

Does an EPR registration in one Member State cover the others?

No. It is a national system. Sell in seven countries, register in seven countries.

Do I need a representative if I am an EU company?

Under the text as it stands, yes, in each Member State where you first make packaging available and where you are not established. There is a proposal to suspend this for EU companies, but it has not been adopted.

I only sell through local distributors. Do I have obligations in their countries?

Usually not, because the producer role passes to the distributor who first makes the product available on that market. Confirm in the contract who takes the role, though, because an assumption is not a clause.

What happens if I sell on a marketplace without registration?

The platform is obliged to verify. In practice that means listing suspension, not a prior notice with a remediation window.

Can my declaration of conformity representative also cover EPR?

Not automatically. They are distinct roles with different legal bases. If you already have a product conformity representative, extending the mandate to EPR has to be confirmed in writing, and EPR representation is appointed per Member State regardless.

Where we come in, and where we do not

To be clear from the outset: we do not carry out EPR registration and we do not provide authorised representation in other Member States. Those are local execution services, and you need a specialist provider in each market.

What we do is the upstream part: establishing which markets you actually have obligations in and which you do not, mapping roles across sales channels, building the packaging data set that serves every filing, and setting out a plan with deadlines. In other words, telling you exactly what to buy and from how many providers, before you spend.

For the Romanian picture, see the dedicated article. For the wider PPWR context, see the pillar article.

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