Articles 44-47: Producer Requirements (EPR)

Article 44

Register of producers

1. Each Member State shall, within 18 months of the date of entry into force of first implementing act adopted pursuant to paragraph 14, establish a national register which shall serve to monitor compliance of producers with the requirements set out in this Chapter. Each national register shall provide links to other national registers of producers’ websites to facilitate, in all Member States, registration of producers or authorised representatives for the extended producer responsibility.

2. Producers shall be obliged to register in the register referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article in each Member State where they make packaging or packaged products available on the territory of the Member State for the first time or where they unpack packaged products without being end users, by submitting an application for registration to the competent authority responsible for the register of each such Member State. Where a producer has entrusted a producer responsibility organisation with carrying out the extended producer responsibility obligations on its behalf pursuant to Article 46(1), the obligations set out in this Article shall be met by that organisation, unless otherwise specified by the Member State in which the register is established.
3. Member States may provide that the obligations set out in this Article may, on the basis of a written mandate, be met on behalf of producers by an authorised representative for the extended producer responsibility.
4. Producers shall not make available packaging or packaged products on the territory of a Member State for the first time, or unpack packaged products without being end users, if they or, where applicable, in accordance with Article 45, their authorised representatives for the extended producer responsibility are not registered in that Member State.
5. The application for registration shall include the information to be provided in accordance with Part A of Annex IX. A Member State may request producers to provide additional information or documents if such information or documents are necessary to monitor and ensure compliance with this Regulation and with the rules adopted by that Member State pursuant to Article 40(2).
6. Where an authorised representative for the extended producer responsibility represents more than one producer, it shall, in addition to the information to be provided pursuant to paragraph 5, provide the name and the contact details of each one of the producers which it represents, separately.
7. The producer or, where applicable, the producer’s authorised representative for the extended producer responsibility or the producer responsibility organisation, as stipulated by national law in accordance with paragraphs 2 and 3 of this Article, shall submit the information set out in Part B, point 1, of Annex IX to the competent authority responsible for the register, by 1 June for each full preceding calendar year. Member States may require the information provided pursuant to this paragraph to be audited and certified by independent auditors under the supervision of the competent authorities referred to in Article 40(1), on the basis of national standards, if any.

8. Where a producer has made available for the first time on the territory of the Member State a quantity of packaging, including packaging of packaged products, of less than 10 tonnes during one calendar year, or where a producer as defined in Article 3(1), point (15)(e), unpacks a quantity of packaging of less than 10 tonnes during one calendar year, the producer or, where applicable, the producer’s authorised representative for the extended producer responsibility or the producer responsibility organisation, as stipulated by national law in accordance with paragraphs 2 and 3 of this Article, shall submit the information set out in Part B, point 2, of Annex IX to the competent authority responsible for the register, by 1 June for each full preceding calendar year. By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, a Member State may, for a specific calendar year, set a lower maximum threshold than that referred to in the first subparagraph if the Member State would otherwise have insufficient accurate data in order to:

(a) comply with the reporting obligations under Article 56(1) and (2) in that calendar year; and

(b) ensure that the database under Article 57 is complete and provide the data under Article 56(2), point (a).

9. If it is necessary for budgetary reasons, a Member State may require the producer to submit the information set out in Part B, points 1 and 2, of Annex IX to the competent authority responsible for the register on a quarterly basis.
10. Producers, in the case of individual fulfilment of extended producer responsibility obligations, the producer responsibility organisation entrusted with carrying out those obligations, in the case of collective fulfilment of extended producer responsibility obligations, or the re-use system operators, in the case where re-use systems are fulfilling the extended producer responsibility obligations, shall submit the information set out in Part B, point 3, of Annex IX to the competent authority for each preceding calendar year on an annual basis. Where under national law public authorities are responsible for the organisation of the management of packaging waste, Member States may provide that those authorities shall submit the information set out in Part B, point 3, of Annex IX.

11. The competent authority responsible for the register:

(a) shall receive applications for registration as referred to in paragraph 2 via an electronic data-processing system, the details of which shall be made available on the competent authority’s website;

(b) shall grant registrations and provide a registration number within a maximum period of twelve weeks from the moment that all the information required under paragraphs 5 and 6 is provided;

(c) may lay down modalities with respect to the requirements and process of registration without adding substantive requirements to those laid down in paragraphs 5 and 6;

(d) may charge producers cost-based and proportionate fees for the processing of applications for registration as referred to in paragraph 2;

(e) shall receive and monitor the information submitted pursuant to paragraphs 7 and 8.

12. The producer, or, where applicable, the producer’s authorised representative for the extended producer responsibility or the producer responsibility organisation shall, without undue delay, notify the competent authority of any changes to the information contained in the registration and of any permanent cessation of the making available for the first time on the territory of the Member State of the packaging or packaged product referred to in the registration. A producer shall be removed from the register 3 years from the end of the calendar year in which the producer’s registration ends if the producer has ceased to exist as a producer.
13. Member States shall ensure that the list of registered producers is easily accessible, publicly available and free of charge, without prejudice to the preservation of the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information in conformity with the relevant Union and national law. The list of registered producers shall be machine readable, sortable and searchable, and shall respect open standards for third-party use.
14. The Commission shall, by 12 February 2026, adopt implementing acts establishing the format for registration in, and reporting to, the register and specifying the granularity of data to be provided and the packaging types and material categories to be covered by the information submitted.

The format for the submission of information pursuant to this Article shall be interoperable, shall be based on open standards and machine-readable data, and shall be transferable through an interoperable data exchange network without vendor lock-in.

Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 65(2).

Article 45

Extended producer responsibility

1. Producers shall have extended producer responsibility under the schemes established in accordance with Articles 8 and 8a of Directive 2008/98/EC and with this Section for the packaging, including packaging of packaged products, that they make available for the first time on the territory of a Member State or that they unpack without being end users.
2. In addition to the costs referred to in Article 8a(4), point (a), of Directive 2008/98/EC, the financial contributions paid by the producer shall cover the following costs:

(a) costs of labelling waste receptacles for the collection of packaging waste as referred to in Article 13 of this Regulation; and

(b) costs of carrying out compositional surveys of collected mixed municipal waste under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/595 and under the implementing acts to be adopted pursuant to Article 56(7), point (a), of this Regulation where those implementing acts provide for an obligation to carry out such surveys.

The costs to be covered shall be established in a transparent, proportional, non-discriminatory and efficient way.

3. A producer referred to in Article 3(1), point (15)(c) and (d), shall appoint, by written mandate, an authorised representative for the extended producer responsibility in each Member State where the producer makes packaging or packaged products available for the first time, other than the Member State where the producer is established. Member States may provide that producers established in third countries shall appoint, by written mandate, an authorised representative for the extended producer responsibility when making packaging or packaged products available on their territory for the first time.
4. For the purposes of compliance with Article 30(1), points (d) and (e), of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, providers of online platforms that fall within the scope of Section 4 of Chapter III of that Regulation and that allow consumers to conclude distance contracts with producers shall obtain the following information from producers that offer packaging or packaged products to consumers located in the Union prior to allowing those producers to use their services:

(a) information on the registration of the producers referred to in Article 44 of this Regulation in the Member State where the consumer is located and the registration number(s) of the producer in that register;

(b) a self-certification by the producer confirming that it only offers packaging with regard to which the extended producer responsibility requirements referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of this Article are complied with in the Member State where the consumer is located.

Where a producer sells its products via an online marketplace, the obligations set out in paragraph 2 of this Article may, on the basis of written mandate, be met by the provider of the online platform, on behalf of the producer.

5. Member States may provide that, where automated data reconciliation with the national register is provided for in that Member State, it shall be applicable for verification of the information referred to in paragraph 4, points (a) and (b).
6. Upon receiving the information referred to in paragraph 4 and prior to allowing producers to use its services, the provider of the online platform shall make best efforts to assess whether the information received is complete and reliable.
7. Producers offering packaging or packaged products to consumers located in the Union shall provide fulfilment service providers with the information referred to in paragraph 4, points (a) and (b), of this Article at the moment of the conclusion of the contract between the fulfilment service provider and the producer for any of the services referred to in Article 3, point (11), of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020.
8. Upon receiving the information referred to in paragraph 7 of this Article and at the moment of the conclusion of the contract between the fulfilment service provider and the producer for any of the services referred to in Article 3, point (11), of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, the fulfilment service provider shall, through the use of any freely accessible official online database or online interface made available by a Member State or the Union or by means of the publicly available registration list under Article 44(13) of this Regulation or requests to the producer to provide supporting documents from reliable sources, make best efforts to assess whether the information referred to in paragraph 7 of this Article is reliable and complete. For the purposes of this Regulation, producers shall be responsible for the accuracy of the information provided.

Where the fulfilment service provider obtains sufficient indications or has reason to believe that any item of information referred to in paragraph 7 obtained from the producer concerned is inaccurate, incomplete or not up-to-date, that fulfilment service provider shall request that the producer remedies that situation without delay or within the period set by Union or national law, as applicable.

Where the producer fails to correct or complete that information, the fulfilment service provider shall swiftly suspend the provision of its service to that producer in relation to the offering of packaging or packaged products to consumers located in the Union until the request has been fully complied with. The fulfilment service provider shall provide the producer with the reasons for the suspension.

9. Without prejudice to Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 of the European Parliament and of the Council, in the event that a fulfilment service provider suspends the provision of its services pursuant to paragraph 8 of this Article, the producer concerned shall have the right to challenge the decision of the fulfilment service provider before a court in a Member State in which the fulfilment service provider is established.

Article 46

Producer responsibility organisation

1. Producers may entrust a producer responsibility organisation authorised in accordance with Article 47 with carrying out the extended producer responsibility obligations on their behalf. Member States may adopt measures to make entrusting the extended producer responsibility obligations to a producer responsibility organisation mandatory.
2. Where, on the territory of a Member State, one or multiple producer responsibility organisations are authorised to fulfil extended producer responsibility obligations on behalf of producers, the Member State shall ensure that the producer responsibility organisation or organisations and producers that have not entrusted the carrying out of the extended producer responsibility obligations to a producer responsibility organisation, when taken together, cover the whole territory of the Member State as regards the activities in accordance with Article 47(3) and Articles 48 and 50. Member States shall appoint an independent third party to oversee the carrying out of the extended producer responsibility obligations by the producer responsibility organisations in a coordinated manner or shall entrust such oversight to the competent authority.
3. Producer responsibility organisations shall ensure the confidentiality of the data in their possession as regards proprietary information or information directly attributable to individual producers or their authorised representatives.
4. In addition to the information referred to in Article 8a(3), point (e), of Directive 2008/98/EC, producer responsibility organisations shall publish on their websites, at least once a year, information on the quantity of packaging, including packaging of packaged products, made available for the first time on the territory of a Member State, or unpacked by a producer without being an end user, and on the levels of recovered and recycled materials in relation to the quantity of packaging for which they have been performing producer responsibility obligations.

Member States may provide that public authorities that are responsible for the organisation of the management of packaging waste shall publish on their websites, at least once a year, information on the levels of recovered and recycled materials in relation to the quantity of packaging waste generated on their territory.

5. Producer responsibility organisations shall ensure equal treatment of producers regardless of their origin or size, without placing a disproportionate burden on producers of small quantities of packaging, including packaging of packaged products, including small and medium-sized enterprises.

Article 47

Authorisation on fulfilment of extended producer responsibility

1. The producer, in the case of individual fulfilment of extended producer responsibility obligations, or the producer responsibility organisation entrusted with carrying out those obligations, in the case of collective fulfilment of extended producer responsibility obligations, shall apply for an authorisation on fulfilment of extended producer responsibility from the competent authority.
2. When adopting measures laying down the administrative and procedural rules referred to in Article 40(2), Member States shall establish the requirements and details of the authorisation procedure. Those requirements and details may differ for individual and collective fulfilment of the extended producer responsibility obligations. Member States shall also establish the modalities for verifying compliance, including the information to be provided by producers or producer responsibility organisations to that end. The authorisation procedure shall include requirements on the verification of the arrangements put in place to ensure compliance with the requirements laid down in paragraph 3 of this Article, and timeframes for that verification, which shall not exceed 18 weeks from the submission of a complete application dossier. That verification shall be carried out by a competent authority or an independent expert who shall issue a verification report on its result. The independent expert shall be independent of the competent authority and of the producer responsibility organisations or the producers authorised for individual fulfilment.
3. The measures to be established by Member States in accordance with paragraph 2 shall include measures ensuring that:

(a) the requirements laid down in Article 8a(3), points (a) to (d), of Directive 2008/98/EC are complied with;

(b) the measures put in place or paid for by the producer or producer responsibility organisation are sufficient to allow for the return and waste management of all packaging waste in accordance with Article 48(1) and (5) and Article 50, free of charge for consumers, with a frequency proportionate to the area and volume of packaging waste covered with regard to the quantity and types of packaging, including packaging of packaged products, made available for the first time on the territory of a Member State by that producer or producers on whose behalf the producer responsibility organisation acts, or packaging unpacked by such producer or producers without being end users;

(c) the necessary arrangements, including preliminary arrangements, to that end are in place with distributors, public authorities or third parties carrying out waste management on their behalf;

(d) the necessary sorting and recycling capacity is available to ensure that packaging waste collected is subsequently subject to preliminary treatment and high-quality recycling;

(e) the requirement laid down in paragraph 6 of this Article is complied with.

4. The producer or the producer responsibility organisation shall notify the competent authority without undue delay of any changes to the information contained in the application for an authorisation, of any changes that concern the terms of the authorisation, or of the permanent cessation of operations. On the basis of some or all of such notified changes, the competent authority may decide to amend the authorisation.
5. The competent authority may decide to revoke the authorisation, in particular if the producer or producer responsibility organisation no longer fulfils the requirements on the organisation of the treatment of packaging waste or fails to fulfil other extended producer responsibility obligations under the schemes established in accordance with Articles 8 and 8a of Directive 2008/98/EC or under this Section, such as obligations to report to the competent authority, or obligations to notify any changes to the terms of the authorisation or if the producer has permanently ceased operations.
6. The producer, in the case of individual fulfilment of extended producer responsibility obligations, or the producer responsibility organisation entrusted with carrying out those obligations, in the case of collective fulfilment of extended producer responsibility obligations, shall provide an adequate guarantee intended to cover the costs related to waste management operations owed by the producer or the producer responsibility organisation, in the event of non-compliance with the extended producer responsibility obligations, including in the permanent cessation of its operations, or insolvency. Member States may specify additional requirements for the guarantee. The guarantee may take the form of a public fund that is financed by producers’ fees and for which a Member State is jointly and severally liable.

Source: Regulation (EU) 2025/40 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 2024 on packaging and packaging waste, OJ L, 2025/40, 22.1.2025