PPWR 2026: what changes for non-EU packaging producers
Regulation (EU) 2025/40, known as the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, enters into force on 11 February 2025 and applies directly on 12 August 2026. For non-EU packaging producers, the most important provision is Article 45.
Until now, the obligation for non-EU sellers to designate an authorized representative in France for the packaging EPR stream rested on French national law: the AGEC law, the Environment Code, and several implementing decrees. From 12 August 2026, the obligation is reframed as a direct EU rule with uniform mechanics across all 27 member states.
What Article 45 says, in practice
Article 45 of Regulation (EU) 2025/40 requires every producer of packaging or packaged products not established in a member state to appoint, in writing, an authorized representative in each member state where it places packaging on the market for the first time.
The representative is established in the same member state as the placing on the market. The mandate is in writing. The representative carries out the EPR obligations on behalf of the producer. Importantly, Article 45 paragraph 4 explicitly allows online marketplaces to assume those obligations by mandate, formalizing a B2B arrangement that was a grey area under the previous national-only framework.
What does not change
The producer remains legally responsible. The PPWR does not introduce subrogation (a legal transfer of responsibility from producer to representative). For France, this aligns with the November 2023 ruling of the Conseil d Etat in the EcoDDS case, which annulled the subrogation clause from article R. 541-174 of the Environment Code.
For EPR streams other than packaging, the legal basis remains Directive 2008/98/EC article 8a paragraph 5, transposed by each member state. France will continue to apply the Environment Code, the AGEC law and its implementing decrees for WEEE, batteries, textile, furniture, toys, sports, paper and construction.
What you should do before August 2026
If you sell packaged products to French consumers from outside the EU, the practical answer is: nothing different from today. You need a French authorized representative for the packaging stream now, under French law, and you will need one from 12 August 2026, under EU law. We continue to act in that role across the transition.
If you are considering opening up additional EU markets (Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium), 12 August 2026 is the date from which a single regulatory framework governs the representative mandate everywhere in the EU. We can advise on multi- country arrangements via our partners.
Sources
- · Regulation (EU) 2025/40 of 19 December 2024 (PPWR), Articles 1, 3, 45
- · Directive 2008/98/EC, Article 8a paragraph 5, as modified by 2018/851
- · French Environment Code, articles L. 541-10, L. 541-10-9, L. 541-10-13
- · Conseil d Etat, 10 November 2023, decision number 449213 (EcoDDS)