Glossary
Extended producer responsibility
Also called: EPR
What it means in practice
In practice it means registering in each country, reporting how much packaging was sent there, and paying a fee based on that. The registers and the fees are national and differ from one country to the next.
The rules that give it meaning
The single EU-wide reporting format that does not exist yet
No start date yetThe rules ask the European Commission to set one common format for registering and reporting packaging, and gave it a deadline of 12 February 2026. That has not happened. Once it does, countries get 18 months to build registers that match it. Until then, registering and reporting works the way each country already does it, and there is no common EU format to prepare for.
Source: Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Art. 44(1) and Art. 44(14) — read from this source on
A business that sends packaged goods straight to customers in another EU country has to appoint someone based in that country to handle its packaging duties there. The rules call this person an authorised representative for extended producer responsibility. It has to be done in writing, and separately for each country. For businesses based outside the EU the picture is different: each country decides for itself whether to require one.
Source: Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Art. 45(3) — read from this source on
Commonly got wrong about this
Registration happens separately in each country a business sends packaged goods to, and selling there without it is not allowed.