The EU packaging rule that just stopped US retailers from shipping

On 12 August 2026, Regulation (EU) 2025/40 begins to apply across all 27 member states. It replaces the 30 year old packaging directive, and unlike a directive it applies directly, with no national transposition needed.

For US companies shipping packaged goods to EU customers, it is not a sustainability initiative to review next quarter. Some US retailers have already announced they are pausing EU sales entirely rather than solve it in time.

Here is what actually changed, and what it takes to keep shipping.

Two obligations, commonly confused

Most of the confusion around PPWR comes from collapsing two separate requirements into one. They have different scopes, different paperwork, and different geographic logic.

1. Conformity: the Declaration of Conformity

Packaging placed on the EU market must go through a conformity assessment and be covered by an EU Declaration of Conformity, supported by technical documentation.

The detail that surprises people: it is per unique packaging type, not per company and not per supplier. A retailer sourcing from hundreds of manufacturers, each using several packaging formats, is looking at a documentation set in the thousands.

And you probably cannot write these yourself. If you did not design the packaging, the manufacturer did, and the declaration has to come from them.

2. Extended producer responsibility: the Article 45 representative

Article 45 requires a producer not established in a member state to appoint, by written mandate, an authorized representative for extended producer responsibility in each member state where it first makes packaging available.

Read that again: each member state. There is no single window. A Spanish registration does not cover Germany. Registration is national, fees are national, and the representative must be established locally.

For a company selling into all 27, that is 27 relationships.

The workaround that does not work

The obvious instinct is to open one EU office and route everything through it.

The European Commission’s PPWR guidance closes that door. A branch office cannot act as an importer, because it lacks independent legal personality. Where a non-EU manufacturer has only a branch in the EU, the guidance directs setting up a subsidiary, or appointing an authorized representative where the member state of first placing requires one.

So the realistic options are:

• Incorporate subsidiaries in each relevant member state. That means local directors in several jurisdictions, annual filings, accounting obligations, tax nexus, and months of calendar.
• Appoint representatives. A written mandate and a national registration per market.

One of those takes quarters. The other takes weeks.

Northern Ireland is not a 28th EU market

This is where most providers get it wrong, and it is worth being precise.

PPWR applies in Northern Ireland under Article 13(3) of the Windsor Framework, which preserves NI’s dual access to the UK internal market and the EU single market. A Commission Notice confirmed that the reference to the old Directive 94/62/EC in Annex 2 of the Windsor Framework is now read as referring to PPWR.

But not all of it applies. The Commission Notice specifies the parts that do not reach Northern Ireland, and those include extended producer responsibility for packaging, reuse, and deposit return. Northern Ireland stays inside the UK’s own pEPR scheme.

The practical consequence, as a table:

If a compliance vendor offers you an Article 45 authorized representative for Northern Ireland, they have misread the regulation. Northern Ireland needs handling. It needs different handling.

Packaging is one stream

PPWR governs packaging. It does not govern everything in your catalog.

Batteries, electrical and electronic equipment, tires, textiles, and oils each carry their own extended producer responsibility obligations, with separate national registrations, separate fees, and often separate representative requirements. A producer can hold several EPR representatives at the same time, one per country per stream.

Companies that solve only the packaging file often discover a second obligation a month later. Map the whole surface before you set a reopen date.

What good preparation looks like

• Inventory your packaging. Every unique format, mapped to the products it contains and the markets those products reach.
• Identify who the producer is in each market. The role shifts depending on who owns the brand, who fills the packaging, and where. Getting the role wrong means filing the wrong things.
• Start the supplier campaign now. Declaration of Conformity collection is the longest lead item, because it depends on hundreds of third parties who mostly have not heard of PPWR. Expect wrong documents, old directive references, and safety data sheets sent in place of declarations.
• Appoint representatives in priority markets first. You do not have to restore all 27 simultaneously. Sequence by order volume and get revenue moving.
• Build the archive properly. Technical documentation and declarations must be retained and producible for years, and retrospective audits are possible. Missing documentation is treated as non-compliance.
• Plan for change. PPWR phases in obligations through 2040: recycled content minimums, recyclability classes, reuse targets. The Commission issued second edition FAQs on 1 August 2026, adding a chapter on enforcement in the period right after the application date. This is a moving file, not a one time project.

The honest summary

PPWR is not unusually harsh. It is unusually administrative. The requirements are knowable and the paperwork is finite. What defeats companies is that the work is distributed across hundreds of suppliers in a dozen languages and 27 national registries, and none of it can be done by one person in a spare afternoon.

That is a coordination problem. Coordination problems are solvable.

Need to reopen your EU markets?

Taika Translations provides US-based EU authorized representative services: Declaration of Conformity collection from your suppliers, technical documentation custody, resident representatives across EU member states, and Northern Ireland handled under the correct regime. One accountable contact, US contract, and information security that meets and exceeds ISO 27001.

Book a 20-minute compliance call or learn about our EU authorized representative services.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Obligations depend on your products, packaging, corporate structure, and destination markets.