REP27 · Product compliance · PPWR Article 45
Regulation (EU) 2025/40 · Article 45 · applicable 12 August 2026
On 12 August 2026 Article 45 of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation started to apply. A producer not established in the Member State where its packaging is first made available now has to appoint an authorised representative for extended producer responsibility in that Member State. Not one for the Union: one per country. This page explains what that means next to the two representatives you may already hold, because they are constantly confused and only one of the three works across all 27.
Germany · LUCIDFrance · ADEMESpainItalyNetherlandsPolandAustriaBelgium
The wording is short and the consequence is large: a producer that is not established in the Member State where it makes packaged products available for the first time must appoint, by written mandate, an authorised representative for extended producer responsibility in that Member State.
This is the point everyone misses. One mandate does not cover the internal market. Selling into Germany, France and Spain means three mandates, three schemes, three sets of fees.
As with Article 27 GDPR, an informal arrangement with a logistics partner or a distributor is not an appointment. The mandate has to exist on paper and name the flows it covers.
Appointing a representative moves the administrative work, not the responsibility. If declarations are wrong, the producer answers for them.
Online platforms check the national producer registration number before leaving listings visible. The commercial pressure arrives long before any authority does.
Companies write to us every week asking whether their Article 27 designation also covers packaging. It does not, and no provider can make it. The three roles sit under three regulations, answer to three different kinds of authority and are filed in three different places.
| Market | Before | From 12 August 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| France | Mandataire already required for distance sellers under the AGEC law of 2020 | Unchanged in substance, now anchored in Union law |
| Germany | Authorised representative optional; LUCID registration personal to the producer | Representative mandatory; LUCID registration still personal and non-delegable |
| Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Poland | National EPR duties with uneven treatment of foreign sellers | Explicit obligation to appoint in the Member State of first supply |
| Marketplaces | Verification concentrated on France and Germany | Verification extends with the regulation, country by country |
The PPWR does not ask who manufactured the packaging. It asks who first makes the packaged product available on the market of a Member State, which is a commercial test rather than an industrial one. A dropshipper who never touches a box is routinely the producer; a Chinese factory that sells FOB to an EU importer usually is not.
| Situation | Producer for PPWR purposes | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You ship from outside the EU direct to consumers | You | Yours is the first making available in that Member State |
| You sell to an EU distributor who resells | The distributor | It performs the first making available under its own name |
| You use an EU fulfilment centre but sell under your brand | You | The warehouse is a service provider, not the seller |
| You dropship, supplier ships from China | You | The consumer contract is with you, whoever packs the parcel |
| Private label made in the EU for an EU brand | The brand owner | Established already, so no representative is needed |
Nobody publishes a single price because there is no single obligation: fees are set by each national scheme against declared tonnage, and the representative charges its own fee on top.
Specialised providers start around €190 a year per country and per flow. Two countries and two flows is four line items, not one.
Charged on the weight and material of the packaging you declare. Small sellers often find it lower than the administrative fee that collects it.
Registration and mandate typically take two to six weeks per country. This is the part that catches people, because listings can be blocked in the meantime.
Annual at minimum, quarterly in some schemes, with corrections for under-declaration. It is a recurring duty rather than a one-off purchase.
Against that, the two obligations we do cover are single purchases with a single renewal: one Article 27 designation for the whole Union and one Article 16 designation for the whole Union. If your listings are blocked today, they are almost always blocked by the second one, not by packaging.
No, and the two cannot be merged. The Article 27 representative concerns personal data and answers to supervisory authorities, and a single designation covers the whole Union. The packaging representative concerns waste, answers to national schemes, and has to be appointed in each Member State separately.
No. In Germany the LUCID registration stays with the producer and cannot be delegated to anyone. The representative takes over the declarations and the fees towards the scheme, which is a different obligation.
Yes. The AGEC law made a mandataire compulsory for distance sellers back in 2020. What the PPWR did was generalise the French approach to the Union instead of leaving each country to invent its own.
No. We provide the Article 27 GDPR representative and the Article 16 GPSR responsible person. The packaging role requires a licensed presence in each national scheme, and specialised EPR providers sell it from roughly €190 a year per flow.
It blocks the offer in the affected country. It is the same mechanism you may already have met with the GPSR responsible person: the platform collects a field and suppresses the listing when the field is empty.
A non-EU seller shipping physical consumer goods commonly needs three. That is not a scare figure: it is one representative for data, one for product safety and one for packaging waste, each created by a different regulation.
Not for the appointment itself. Some national schemes apply reduced reporting below certain tonnages, but the duty to be registered and represented is not waived because your volumes are small.
No. Platforms verify your registration number, they do not hold it for you. Some offer a partner service; that is a commercial arrangement with a third party, not the platform taking on the role.
No. A fiscal representative deals with tax administrations. The packaging representative deals with producer responsibility schemes. Different registers, different providers, and neither can act for the other.
Stock sitting in a warehouse has not yet been made available to a consumer. The obligation bites when it is sold, which means you can still regularise before the first order rather than after.
Some EPR providers hold licences in several schemes and present a single contract. Behind it there is still one mandate per Member State, which is why the price scales with countries rather than being flat.
In the same position as a large one legally, but with a different practical order of priorities: appoint the Article 16 responsible person first because it blocks listings immediately, then handle packaging registration for the countries that actually generate orders.
It is the one that blocks your marketplace listings first, because it has applied since December 2024 and platforms check it aggressively. If you are only now looking at packaging, check that one before anything else.
Related: the responsible person Amazon checks · Article 27 or Article 16, which one applies
The Article 27 GDPR representative and the Article 16 GPSR responsible person, both signed within 24 hours of a completed form, with certificates carrying a verification code anyone can check.
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