PPWR applies: what changes for electronics packaging

Author Hugues Orgitello Last updated 22 August 2026 ~6 min read

News · Regulatory evolution

Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste, published in the OJEU on 22 January 2025 and in force since 11 February 2025, has applied since 12 August 2026 under its Article 71. Directive 94/62/EC was repealed with effect from the same day. For an electronics manufacturer the useful question is what binds it today and what can wait until 2028, 2030 or 2038.

In short:

Applicable since 12 August 2026, with Directive 94/62/EC repealed but a few of its provisions kept alive into 2028 and 2029.
Immediate: the definition of manufacturer, the Annex VII technical file, the EU declaration of conformity, and the 100 mg/kg heavy-metal limit.
Deferred: recyclability grades, recycled content, quantified minimisation, the harmonised sorting label.
The empty-space cap is 50 %, not 40 %, and it bites on 1 January 2030 at the earliest.

What actually changed on 12 August 2026

The repeal is not outright. Article 70(1) keeps four sets of provisions of Directive 94/62/EC alive beyond that date, three of them until 31 December 2028 or 31 December 2029. Two structural changes, by contrast, took effect at once. Article 66 adds the PPWR as point 75 of Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, so packaging now sits in the same market-surveillance framework as CE-marked products. And Commission Notice C/2026/3084 of 10 June 2026 settles several points of interpretation without amending the Regulation.

Obligation	Article	Applies from
Annex VII file, Module A, EU declaration of conformity	15, 38, 39	12 August 2026
Heavy metals, 100 mg/kg maximum	5(4)	12 August 2026
Harmonised material composition label	12(1)	12 August 2028 at the earliest
Weight and volume minimisation	10(1)	1 January 2030
Recyclability grades A, B or C	6(3)	1 January 2030 at the earliest
Recycled content in plastic parts	7(1)	1 January 2030 at the earliest
Empty space ratio, 50 % maximum	24(1)	1 January 2030 at the earliest
Grade C barred from the market	6(3)	1 January 2038

The PPWR manufacturer is the OEM

Article 3(1)(13) makes the manufacturer whoever has packaging designed or manufactured under its own name or trademark, regardless of whether another trademark is visible. The role shifts to the packaging supplier only where the brand owner is a micro-enterprise and that supplier is established in the same Member State.

Commission Notice C/2026/3084 is blunt about the consequence: there is only ever one manufacturer in a supply chain, and that operator alone carries legal responsibility for compliance, whoever actually drafted the EU declaration of conformity. A box printed with an OEM's logo is the OEM's packaging, not the converter's. In return, Article 16(1) obliges its packaging suppliers to hand over all the information and documentation it needs to demonstrate conformity.

Annex VII, Module A and a single declaration

Article 15(2) requires, before placing packaging on the market, the conformity assessment of Article 38, the Annex VII technical documentation and then an EU declaration of conformity under Article 39. Annex VII is Module A, internal production control: no notified body is involved. The file brings together a general description of the packaging and its intended use, drawings and materials of the components, the harmonised standards and common specifications applied (Articles 36 and 37) and the test reports.

The point that matters for a CE file is Article 39(3): where the packaging or the packaged product falls under several Union acts each requiring an EU declaration of conformity, a single declaration is to be drawn up, where appropriate, in respect of all of them, and it may take the form of a dossier assembling the individual declarations. The packaging DoC can therefore join the one already covering RED, EMC and LVD, following the Annex VIII model. Retention runs to five years for single-use packaging and ten for reusable packaging, with documents due to an authority within ten days of a reasoned request.

Substances: what catches electronics packaging, and what does not

Article 5(4) sets the only hard figure that binds an electronics box today: the sum of the concentrations of lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium resulting from substances present in the packaging or its components must not exceed 100 mg/kg, without prejudice to Annex XVII of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (REACH). Paragraph 1 adds the duty to minimise substances of concern; paragraph 6 requires compliance with paragraphs 4 and 5 to be demonstrated in the Annex VII file.

The PFAS restriction in Article 5(5), effective 12 August 2026, applies to food-contact packaging only: 25 ppb for any single PFAS by targeted analysis, 250 ppb for the sum of PFAS, and 50 ppm including polymeric PFAS. A carton, a foam insert or an antistatic bag shipped with a device falls outside that scope.

Empty space and minimisation: the 40 % figure is wrong

No 40 % empty-space limit appears in the Regulation as adopted, and no empty-space obligation bites on 12 August 2026. Article 24(1) sets the maximum empty space ratio at 50 % for operators filling grouped, transport or e-commerce packaging, and applies it only from 1 January 2030 or three years after the Article 24(2) implementing acts enter into force, whichever is later. Those acts, which will fix the calculation methodology, are due by 12 February 2028. Filling material counts as empty space.

For sales packaging, Article 24(4) requires that, by 12 February 2028, empty space be cut to the minimum needed for functionality, with no numeric threshold attached. General weight and volume minimisation sits in Article 10(1) from 1 January 2030, assessed against the eight performance criteria of Annex IV; until then the Notice points to EN 13428:2004.

Article 24(6) contains the only substantive mention of electronics in the Regulation: by 12 February 2032 the Commission must review this ratio and assess whether to set one for sales packaging, electronic products included.

Recyclability and labelling: dates, not yet a test

Article 6(1) states that all packaging placed on the market shall be recyclable. Commission Notice C/2026/3084 spells out exactly what that means: that sentence has applied since 12 August 2026, but until Article 6(2)(a) applies, manufacturers must comply only with the requirements carried over from the old Directive and its harmonised standards, EN 13430:2004 among them. No Annex VII conformity assessment is required for recyclability before the Article 6(4) delegated acts, due by 1 January 2028, enter into force.

The grades nonetheless already exist, in Table 3 of Annex II: grade A at 95 % or more, grade B at 80 % or more, grade C at 70 % or more, and below 70 % a packaging unit is technically non-recyclable and its placing on the market is restricted. Grade C is enough from 1 January 2030; grade B becomes the floor on 1 January 2038.

The harmonised material composition label of Article 12(1), built on pictograms, applies from 12 August 2028 or 24 months after the corresponding implementing acts enter into force, whichever is later. The abbreviations of Decision 97/129/EC remain usable until 12 August 2028, the date it is repealed.

PPWR and WEEE: two parallel regimes

Regulation (EU) 2025/40 contains no reference to Directive 2012/19/EU or to waste electrical and electronic equipment: two parallel regimes and two separate national registrations, the EEE producer register of Article 16 of the WEEE Directive on one side, the packaging producer register of Article 44 of the PPWR on the other. The WEEE Directive excludes packaging from the weight of EEE used to calculate collection rates, so the tonnages never merge, and Article 44(4) bars an unregistered producer from making a packaged product available in that Member State for the first time.

One physical contact point remains. Article 14(4) of Directive 2012/19/EU provides that, in exceptional cases, where this is necessary because of the size or the function of the product, the crossed-out wheeled bin symbol (Annex IX, preferably in accordance with EN 50419) is printed on the packaging, on the instructions for use and on the warranty of the EEE. It will have to stay distinguishable from the future sorting label, since Article 12(8) of the PPWR prohibits any marking liable to mislead on packaging waste management.