EU packaging EPR representative rules for small businesses, 2026

Regulation (EU) 2025/40, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, became applicable across the European Union on 12 August 2026. For small businesses selling packaged products across borders, the immediate rule is still the rule on the books: an authorised representative must be appointed for extended producer responsibility compliance in each Member State where the business sells products. Parliament's proposed relief has not yet changed that obligation.

The Commission has proposed suspending the representative requirement for small businesses, while Parliament has taken a narrower position. On 20 October 2026, Members of the European Parliament backed a temporary suspension for EU-based micro and small enterprises only. The proposed cut-off is fewer than 50 employees and either annual turnover below €10 million or an annual balance-sheet total below €10 million. The suspension would run until 2035, or end earlier if a comprehensive circular-economy act enters into force.

That vote is a negotiating position, not settled law. The Council and Parliament still have to agree the final text, and the resulting measure must be adopted before a business can rely on the exemption. Until then, a cross-border seller should not remove appointed representatives from its compliance plan on the strength of the parliamentary vote.

The obligation that applies now

The present requirement matters most to EU-based businesses that place packaging or packaged products directly with end users in another Member State, including through e-commerce. Since August 2026, the representative requirement applies in all Member States, including countries that did not previously impose it through national legislation.

The Commission's small-business guidance identifies producers placing less than 10 tonnes of packaging on the market per calendar year as eligible for certain flexibilities and exemptions under the PPWR. That production threshold does not itself create the proposed representative exemption. A business must keep the two tests separate: the packaging-volume threshold concerns PPWR flexibilities, while Parliament's proposed suspension uses employee and financial limits.

The current compliance file therefore still needs to identify the Member States in which packaging is likely to become waste, confirm national EPR registration requirements, and record the authorised representative arrangements required there. The Commission has urged Member States to enforce the representative obligation constructively and pragmatically while the proposal is examined, including by abstaining from sanctions. That request is administrative guidance, not a repeal of the legal duty.

Parliament's narrower exemption

Parliament rejected a blanket approach covering every producer affected by the Commission proposal. Its position limits the suspension to EU-based micro and small enterprises. Businesses established outside the EU would continue to need representatives in the Member States where their products enter the market.

The position also leaves the rest of EPR intact. An exempt business would still have to deal with applicable registration, reporting, waste-prevention and financial obligations. It would not receive a general waiver from packaging rules merely because it qualifies as a small or micro enterprise.

The vote on packaging-waste and battery provisions was supported by 616 MEPs, with nine opposed and 39 abstaining. That margin gives the position political weight, but it does not supply an effective date or replace the legislative step still required. The operative question for a compliance manager is not whether Parliament voted for the exemption. It is whether the final act has been adopted and when its suspension begins.

The proposed scope can be summarized as follows:

The financial test is alternative: the enterprise would qualify by meeting the turnover limit or the balance-sheet limit, alongside the employee test. A company outside the EU cannot use the proposed suspension merely because its sales volume is small.

The packaging-volume rule

The Commission's separate guidance sets a threshold of less than 10 tonnes of packaging produced per calendar year for specific PPWR flexibilities. Member States may also provide proportionate, flat EPR fees for eligible small producers. Those measures can reduce administrative and financial burden, but they do not remove the need to check national registration rules.

The Commission is expected to establish harmonised European rules for registration and reporting. Member States would then have 18 months to adapt existing registers or create registers where needed. Until those registers are in place and the new rules apply, businesses must continue to follow the current national systems. A company planning a single EU-wide reporting workflow should therefore treat harmonisation as a future process change, not as permission to stop country-by-country checks today.

The practical sequence is straightforward. First, determine where the packaging placed on the market is likely to become waste. Second, confirm each national registration requirement. Third, appoint representatives where the current law requires them. Fourth, retain evidence for the employee, turnover, balance-sheet and packaging-volume tests in case the final suspension is adopted in a form that requires eligibility to be demonstrated.

What remains to be agreed

The Council document records the business concern driving the proposal: small and micro-enterprises selling modest quantities in several Member States face repeated representative appointments, administrative work and fees. The likely reason for the proposed suspension is to remove a cross-border compliance cost that can be disproportionate to the quantity of packaging sold. That reading does not change the legal status of the measure.

The Council and Parliament must still settle the scope, duration and conditions through the EU legislative process. A peer authority would still have to publish the final legal text, its effective date and the point at which businesses may stop appointing representatives. It would also have to clarify how the exemption interacts with existing national registers and any transitional arrangements.

The Commission has said that outstanding delegated and implementing acts, guidance and frequently asked questions remain necessary for practical application of the PPWR. That leaves a clear instruction for small businesses: prepare for the current representative requirement, document eligibility for the proposed exemption, and change the process only after the final measure takes effect. Parliament has voted for relief; it has not yet delivered it.