New Europe-wide packaging rules: what they mean for your webshop.
What you need to have arranged now.
- Registration with the EPR body. In every country where you place packaging on the market, you register with the national producer organization. In the Netherlands, that’s Verpact. You report your packaging volumes to them annually and pay a waste management fee. This requirement already existed for many Dutch online stores. What is changing is the strictness of the requirements and enforcement.
- Declaration of conformity and technical documentation. Your packaging supplier creates these. You request them and keep them on file for five years. Do this for every supplier you buy packaging from. If you import packaging yourself from outside the EU, you’re the importer, and that obligation is on you.
- Buying your packaging from us? Our PPWR support statement lays out which product information we can provide for your file and your declaration.
- Identification on the packaging. The name and address of the manufacturer or the EU responsible person must appear on the packaging. Check whether that’s the case with your current supplier.
A limit on heavy metals applies to all packaging. If you sell food products, a limit also applies on heavy metals and PFAS in packaging that comes into contact with food.
Shipping to other EU countries? Each country counts separately.
Cross-border shipping means registering with the EPR body in every country where your packaging enters the market. Belgium runs through Fost Plus, Germany through LUCID. In principle, you also need an authorized representative per country where you have no establishment.
There’s an EU proposal on that last point to ease the requirement for EU businesses. Keep an eye on that development before spending heavily on it.
Start with the countries with the most volume. If you ship to five countries with 90% of your volume in two of them, tackle those two first.
2030 affects your shipping costs.
From January 1, 2030, an e-commerce or transport package may contain no more than 50% empty space. On top of that: mandatory recyclable design, minimum percentages of recycled plastic, and a ban on unnecessary layers and double walls.
That’s still a way off, but packaging contracts run for years. If you’re buying in now for three years, you’re buying past the deadline.
There’s also a direct upside. Empty space is volumetric weight, and volumetric weight partly determines what you pay per shipment. A better-fitting range of packaging sizes lowers your shipping costs now, regardless of what the law requires in 2030.
What you can already start preparing.
This isn’t mandatory. But it makes your declaration easier and saves you from having to re-purchase in 2029.
- Map out which packaging goes out the door: shipping packaging, envelopes, filling material, tape.
- List which EU countries you ship to and in what volumes. Start with the countries with the most volume.
- Measure the empty space in your most-used packaging formats. It counts toward 2030, and it saves on volumetric weight now.
- Factor the 2030 requirements into your next packaging contract. Contracts run for years; deadlines don’t move.
- Decide who in your company manages registration, declarations, and supplier documentation.
Frequently asked questions.
Three things. Registration with the EPR body in every country where you place packaging on the market, in the Netherlands that’s Verpact. The declarations of conformity and technical documentation from your packaging suppliers on file, kept for five years. And identification details on the packaging itself: name and address of the manufacturer or the EU responsible person.
Yes. Some rules are more lenient for micro-enterprises (fewer than 10 employees and under €2 million in revenue), but registration and declaration almost always still apply.
Yes. Your supplier demonstrates the material’s conformity. You remain responsible for registration, declaration, and how the filled packaging is used.
Yes. Packaging placed on the market before August 12, 2026, can simply be used up.
No, that applies from January 1, 2030.
Yes. As the importer, you’re responsible for the packaging of those products, not the manufacturer outside the EU.
The ILT (Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate) supervises and can enforce, up to and including removing products from the market. Marketplaces and business customers are also increasingly asking for proof of registration, since they have their own compliance obligations.
Where we can help.
For legal advice, registration, and declarations, we refer you to Verpact and the RVO (Netherlands Enterprise Agency).
Where we can help: your shipment data. Dimensions, volumes, and destination countries are in your account. You need those figures for your EPR declaration, and they show you where empty space is already costing you money.