Commonly got wrong

“The rule about empty space in boxes does not start until 2030, so there is nothing to do yet.”

Why this one goes around

Both rules are about packaging being bigger than it needs to be, and they read alike at a glance. One bans packaging built to look bigger than it is, and started straight away. The other asks for weight and volume to be kept to the minimum needed, and has a date years out. Writing about the second one gets attached to the first.

The rules that settle it

• Double walls, false bottoms and packaging that looks bigger than it is

  Applies now

  Packaging built only to look bigger than it needs to be cannot be put on the market. The rules name double walls, false bottoms and unnecessary layers, and also set performance criteria packaging has to meet. This one has no later start date of its own, so it started with the rest of the rules on 12 August 2026. Two narrow exceptions exist. One covers a design or shape trademark protected before 11 February 2025, where meeting the rule would spoil what makes it distinctive. The other covers products with a protected geographical indication or under an EU quality scheme.

  Source: Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Art. 10(2), read with Art. 71 — read from this source on 12 August 2026

• Keeping packaging to the minimum weight and volume

  From 2030

  By 1 January 2030, packaging put on the market has to be designed so its weight and volume are cut to the minimum needed for it to still do its job. The shape and the material both get taken into account. This is a flat date. It does not wait on anything the European Commission has yet to decide.

  Source: Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Art. 10(1) — read from this source on 12 August 2026

Work out which of these apply to you · Other things people get told