What the new law actually requires
Four duties carry most of the weight. Each packaging unit needs a Declaration of Conformity (Article 39, structured on Annex VIII). It must be recyclable, graded against Annex II. Substances of concern are restricted, PFAS in food-contact packaging among them. And producers must be registered, with extended producer responsibility fees paid, in every Member State where they place packaging on the market. Other obligations — recycled-content thresholds, the empty-space ratio, harmonised labelling — arrive later and on dates that are not all settled.
Who it binds — probably you, even if you print nothing
The duty follows the trademark, not the printing press. If your brand is on the pack, you are very likely the manufacturer for PPWR purposes and the producer for EPR purposes, even if a converter made it and a co-packer filled it. Importers and online marketplaces carry their own duties. There is no general small-business exemption and no size threshold: a ten-person brand owes what a multinational owes.
What software has to cover to be worth anything
- Per-unit declarations, not per-company. A tool that produces one document for your business has misunderstood the regulation.
- Recyclability grading against Annex II at the component level — body, label, closure, inks, adhesives — because that is where a pack loses its grade.
- The technical documentation attached to the unit it supports, with the retention period tracked, because the declaration is only as good as what backs it.
- EPR registration and reporting per Member State, since those genuinely multiply with each market.
- Dates that distinguish what is in force from what waits on an act the Commission has not adopted. Most published timelines print 2030 as a certainty; several of those dates are floors.
How to tell a compliance tool from a reporting dashboard
A reporting dashboard tells you what you already know, prettily. A compliance tool produces the artefact an inspector asks for — a signed declaration, per unit, with its evidence attached and its retention tracked. The quickest test when you evaluate one: ask to see the Declaration of Conformity it generates, before you talk about anything else. If the answer is a slide rather than a document, you have your answer.
Where PPWR Connect fits
Public prices from €29 a month, a free assessment that needs no account, per-unit Annex VIII declarations, Annex II grading down to the component, EPR across the 27 Member States, and an interface in nine languages. We also publish comparisons with other tools, including the parts where they are better than us — the links are below.
Keep reading
Every PPWR deadline, and the ones that can still move →