In force since 12 August 2026
When a business counts as a producer, and in which country
Producer is the word the rules use for whoever first puts packaging onto a country's market. It is worked out country by country, so one business can be a producer in several countries at once. There are five ways to become one, and the first four split by what is being made available rather than only by where. Two cover a business in its own country. One is for packaging on its own: the outer boxes and wrapping goods travel in, the cups and bags filled at a counter, the packaging used in farming and fishing. The other is for goods inside any other packaging. Two more cover the same pair sent to another EU country, but only where the goods go directly to the people who will use them. The fifth catches a business that unpacks goods without being the one who uses them, unless somebody earlier in the chain already counts as the producer.
Source: Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Art. 3(1), point (15) — read from this source on
Situations where this one comes up
A business puts its own name or logo on the packaging it sends out, and posts orders to customers in more than one EU country. It is not a very small business by the size test, or it is but buys its packaging from abroad.
A business with fewer than ten people puts its own logo on its packaging, buys that packaging from a supplier in the same country, and sells only to customers at home.
A business registered outside the EU sends packaged goods directly to people in EU countries, rather than selling to a distributor who resells them.
A business sends orders in plain boxes with nothing of its own printed on them, and sells only to customers in the country it is based in.
A business receives stock wrapped on pallets or in outer cartons, strips that packaging off and bins it, then sells the goods on. Its own packaging is plain and it sells only at home.
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