PPWR: relief for small retailers proposed
On 8 September 2026 the German government tabled an amendment to the PPWR in Brussels: anyone placing less than ten tonnes of packaging on the market per year would no longer have to appoint an authorised representative in every destination country. For many small online retailers that would be the relief they have been waiting for since August. But so far the proposal is exactly that — a proposal. This piece sets out what is on the table, which duty it concerns, and what remains unchanged in the meantime.
- Who
- The German government, led by the environment ministry
- When
- 8 September 2026, Environmental Omnibus meeting in Brussels
- Proposal 1
- No authorised representative below ten tonnes per year
- Proposal 2
- Registration in the new system suspended until mid-2028
- Provision concerned
- Art. 45(3) PPWR (Regulation (EU) 2025/40)
- Law as it stands
- The duty has applied unchanged since 12 August 2026
- Procedure
- Tabled, but not yet adopted by the EU legislator
- Next hurdle
- A majority in Brussels has to back the amendment
What is on the table
The German coalition agreed a joint paper on two points and tabled it on 8 September 2026 in the preparatory work on the so-called Environmental Omnibus — the package with which the EU intends to trim several environmental rules at once. The first point is a volume threshold: mail-order and online retailers placing less than ten tonnes of packaging on the market per year would be exempt from appointing an authorised representative for extended producer responsibility in each EU country. The second is a postponement: registration in the new system would lie dormant until mid-2028, until a central European producer register actually works.
The ministry’s reasoning is economic rather than environmental. It concerns the many small retailers who fear they can no longer ship goods to other EU countries because of the new rules. That is precisely what has been happening since August: a shop sending a few dozen parcels a year to Belgium, Czechia and Portugal faces three paid representatives, three registrations and three reporting procedures. At those volumes the maths does not work, so the destination market gets dropped. A single-market rule that shrinks the single market is a design fault — and by now a widely acknowledged one.
The duty at issue
Regulation (EU) 2025/40 has applied directly since 12 August 2026. Article 45(3) requires a producer supplying packaging directly to end users in another member state to appoint an authorised representative for extended producer responsibility there. “Producer” here is the EPR role, not the factory: whoever first places packaged goods on the market in a country is the producer there. For a German shop shipping to France that means a representative in France, registration in France, volume reporting in France — and the same again for every further destination country.
- The representative is appointed per member state, not once for the EU. Fourteen destination countries mean fourteen contracts.
- The cost arises regardless of volume. Whether you ship five parcels or five thousand makes little difference to the base fee.
- Registration in the national producer register remains your own duty — in Germany, registration with LUCID. The representative does not take that off your hands.
- Without a representative, shipping to that country is formally not permitted. This is the point at which small shops switch destination markets off.
With COM(2025) 982 the Commission proposed suspending the authorised representative duty. The Council did not follow.
The regulation applies, Art. 45(3) included. The Commission recommends that authorities issue warnings rather than penalties for this duty.
Berlin tables the ten-tonne threshold and the registration postponement to mid-2028 in the preparatory work on the Environmental Omnibus.
The European Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI) is due to vote on the amendments. Plenary and trilogue follow.
The announced EPR review may bring further relief — or overtake this proposal.
A European producer register is meant to be in place by then. Only at that point would the registration duty resume under the proposal.
What would change — and what would not
The proposal concerns a formality of cross-border shipping. It leaves untouched the requirements placed on the packaging itself. Reading the headline as “the PPWR is being relaxed” conflates two very different levels.
Would fall away (below ten tonnes)
- Appointing an authorised representative per destination country under Art. 45(3)
- The contracts, base fees and reporting channels that come with it, country by country
- Registration in the new system — suspended until mid-2028 under the proposal
- Having to abandon destination markets for purely administrative reasons
Stays in place either way
- Registration in the national producer register — LUCID in Germany — plus scheme participation and volume reporting
- Conformity assessment, technical documentation (Annex VII) and the EU declaration of conformity (Annex VIII, Art. 39)
- Labelling under Art. 12: material identification and full producer details
- PFAS limits for food-contact packaging, in force since 12 August 2026 with no transition period
- Retention duties: five years for single-use and ten years for reusable packaging (Art. 15(3))
Three open questions
First, how the ten tonnes are to be counted is unresolved — EU-wide across all destination markets, or per member state. That decides who falls under it at all. Second, whether and when the proposal will be adopted is entirely open; Germany is still seeking a majority for it. Third, the Commission’s recommendation not to penalise for now changes nothing about the law: competitors and trade associations rely on unfair competition law and are not bound by any authority’s enforcement practice.
What makes sense now
- Establish your packaging volume. Without a reliable annual figure in kilograms you cannot tell whether the ten-tonne threshold would even apply to you — and you need the number for volume reporting regardless.
- List your destination markets and decide country by country. Which countries do you ship to, and how much? Only that list shows where a representative genuinely costs money and where it is a footnote.
- Put the reasoning in writing. If you deliberately go without a representative today, record the assessment and the date. That is the difference between an oversight and a documented decision about risk.
- Build the evidence anyway. Technical documentation and the declaration of conformity must prove the state of things at the moment of placing on the market. That gap cannot be closed later, whatever the Omnibus produces.
- Note 1 October 2026. The environment committee vote is the next point at which it becomes clear whether the proposal is going anywhere.
Note
This assessment is based on publicly available sources and is not binding legal advice. For your individual case, please consult a lawyer or an accredited body.
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