Six euro schemes treat a small brand in three different ways, and a 1,200 kg seller pays nothing in two markets but about EUR 400 in two others

The rules, market by market

Exhibit 2 sets out every threshold, flat fee and minimum charge SPI found on the six schemes’ and regulators’ own pages. Each line is quoted from the scheme or the law; where a rule was not found, the cell says so.

Three points stand out. First, only two of the six markets have a line below which a brand pays nothing at all, and they set it on different bases: weight alone in the Netherlands, weight and turnover together in Ireland. Second, the flat fee options are narrow. ARA’s needs both its household and commercial volumes to stay at or under 1,500 kg; Novo Verde’s applies below 1 tonne; Repak’s scheduled route is closed to brand holders and importers. Third, the minimum charges are small in absolute terms, EUR 50 to EUR 250, but they decide the bill for the smallest sellers.

The fee rates behind the worked examples come from each scheme’s 2026 table: ARA household paper EUR 0.208 per kg, plastics EUR 1.040 and glass EUR 0.108 (ARA tariff sheet 2027, which prints 2026 and 2027); Fost Plus paper and board EUR 0.1503, PE bottles and other rigid packaging EUR 0.8019 and glass EUR 0.1052; Valorlux PV02 EUR 0.0389, PV10 EUR 0.3058 and PV01 EUR 0.0203; Verpact paper and board EUR 0.017, rigid plastic EUR 1.220 and glass EUR 0.100; SPV urban paper EUR 0.3104, PEAD EUR 0.5432 and glass EUR 0.0868; and Repak EUR 45.60, EUR 169.70 and EUR 23.14 per tonne. The EPR fees per tonne piece compares those rates for a large basket; this piece looks only at what changes for small volumes.

A framework: four ways a scheme treats a small brand

SPI groups the six markets into four models, taken from Exhibit 2 (Exhibit 3). The test is simple: what does a brand with a few hundred kilograms pay, and what changes as it grows?

Model A, the no-fee line. The Dutch and Irish lines are wide: a brand can sell several tonnes and pay nothing. But they are cliffs. In Ireland, once both tests are met the brand must join an approved body for the whole year, and in the Netherlands the declaration starts above 50,000 kg, although Verpact’s deduction softens the step (Exhibit 4).

Model B, the flat-fee band. The flat fee rewards brands near the top of the band. On SPI’s mix, ARA’s EUR 150 equals the per kg fee at about 343 kg, so a brand at 1,200 kg saves EUR 375.12, but one at 250 kg pays EUR 40.60 more than it would by reporting. ARA states that the flat-rate route is optional.

Model C, the floor. In Belgium, Luxembourg and Portugal at SPV the brand pays the per kg fee from the first kilogram, with a minimum. The floor only binds for the smallest sellers, but there it sets the cost per kg: EUR 100 on 250 kg is EUR 0.40 per kg in Belgium.

Model D, the EU layer. The PPWR does not give small producers a volume exemption from fees, and the national lines in models A to C remain national choices.

Netherlands: the 50,000 kg line and the deduction above it

The Dutch line comes from Article 9 of the Besluit beheer verpakkingen 2014 and is applied by Verpact, whose 2023 accounts were filed as Stichting Afvalfonds Verpakkingen and 2024 accounts as Verpact (Verpact, jaarrekening 2023 and 2024). Ondernemersplein, the government’s business portal, says a producer that places more than 50,000 kg on the Dutch market a year, or disposes of more than 50,000 kg after import, pays the contribution, including a foreign firm selling online directly to Dutch consumers. Below the line, the producer must record how it calculated that it stays under it (Ondernemersplein, checked 11 September 2025).

Verpact’s policy for 2026, version 3.3 effective 1 January 2026, turns the line into a deduction. Section 3.2.5 reduces the contribution owed by 50,000 kg times the producer’s tariff, or, for several materials, by 50,000 kg split by each material’s weight share, capped at the amount owed. Logistics aids, deposit packaging and SUP packaging are left out of the threshold, and the declaration duty starts from the first deposit or SUP item. Section 3.2.2 treats a fiscal unity as one contributor, so a group gets the deduction once. The declaration is due before 1 April of the following year (section 5.3).

Method. The blended rate on SPI’s mix is 0.5 x 0.017 + 0.3 x 1.220 + 0.2 x 0.100 = EUR 0.3945 per kg. At 60,000 kg the gross bill is 60,000 x 0.3945 = EUR 23,670.00 and the deduction is 50,000 x 0.3945 = EUR 19,725.00, leaving EUR 3,945.00, which equals the fee on the 10,000 kg above the line.

Ireland: two tests, and a flat route for retailers

Regulation 4(3)(a) of S.I. No. 282/2014 makes a business a major producer when the packaging it supplies exceeds or may be expected to exceed 10 tonnes in a calendar year and its annual turnover is more than EUR 1 million. Weight counts all relevant activities within the State, and turnover is turnover derived from activities within the State, including exports, after trade discounts and VAT (regulations 4(1) and 4(3)(b)). Both tests must be met. Below either, there is no duty to join Repak, but regulation 5’s duties on handling packaging waste at the producer’s premises still apply to every producer.

Repak’s own documents name two routes. Regular membership is for manufacturers, importers, brand holders, distributors and large retailers, who pay per tonne by material. Scheduled membership is for businesses that retail directly to consumers and do not import and are not brand holders; it covers the legal obligation for a flat yearly fee, renewed each January on audited turnover, and removes the need to record packaging statistics (Repak Regular Membership Guide 2026; Scheduled Membership information pages). SPI found no Repak category called unscheduled membership in Repak’s published documents; a major producer that is not scheduled joins as a regular member.

The 2026 scheduled schedule, QF 099 v13, charges EUR 402 a year for hardware and building, hospitality, pharmacy, licensed premises, independent retailers, electrical retailers and restaurants placing 10 to 25 tonnes, and EUR 986 above 25 tonnes. Off licences and the higher turnover bands pay EUR 986 to EUR 3,451, up to turnover above EUR 12.7 million. For a brand owner the scheduled route is not open, so the regular rates apply from the first tonne once both tests are met.

Austria: the EUR 150 flat fee and the EUR 90 floor

Austria has no volume line below which a producer is outside the system. The Chamber of Commerce’s guide to the Verpackungsverordnung 2014, dated 18 September 2026, describes the duty to take part in a household system under § 8 and a commercial system under § 10, and records that systems may offer flat-rate solutions for no more than 1,500 kg of household and 1,500 kg of commercial packaging (WKO). It also gives the reporting rhythm of § 9 by expected annual fee: yearly up to EUR 1,500, quarterly from EUR 1,500 to EUR 20,000 and monthly above.

ARA applies those rules. Its 2027 tariff sheet, version of 28 September 2026, sets the minimum fee at EUR 90 and the flat fee at EUR 150 per calendar year, both excluding VAT, under sections VII.4 and VII.5 of its terms. Section XVII of the terms, Stand 29 November 2024, sets out the flat-fee scheme: the limits of 1,500 kg household and 1,500 kg commercial, an electronic invoice at the start of the following year payable on 15 February, notice to ARA by 15 March if the limits were exceeded, and retroactive reporting by material, with the flat fee credited, if the conditions were not met (XVII.1 to XVII.11).

Method. The blended ARA rate on SPI’s mix is EUR 0.4376 per kg. The flat fee equals the per kg fee at 150 / 0.4376 = about 343 kg. The minimum fee of EUR 90 binds only below about 206 kg. At 12,000 kg the expected fee of EUR 5,251.20 falls in the EUR 1,500 to EUR 20,000 band, so ARA’s terms require quarterly reports.

Portugal: SPV's EUR 120 floor and Novo Verde's EUR 150 band

Portugal’s packaging law, Decree-Law 152-D/2017 as republished by Decree-Law 102-D/2020, sets no volume exemption. The Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente’s manual on the UNILEX applies the same duties to every embalador, whoever packs or has packed its products or imports or buys packaged products from another Member State, with no small-producer threshold (APA manual). A brand chooses between the managing entities licensed for packaging, two of which publish small-producer rules.

SPV’s 2026 table sets a minimum annual contribution of EUR 120, applicable to the simplified declaration regime (with an option of a detailed declaration) when the calculated annual contribution is lower (SPV VPV 2026, December 2025 edition). Under a simplified declaration, SPV estimates the weights for the year itself and splits the total across the materials declared, with no year-end adjustment unless the values change (SPV, Adira ao Sistema Ponto Verde). Novo Verde’s 2026 fees, updated on 1 July 2026, set a flat EUR 150 a year for a member of small dimension placing under 1 tonne a year, plus VAT (Novo Verde).

Method. At 250 kg the SPV fee is 125 x 0.3104 + 75 x 0.5432 + 50 x 0.0868 = EUR 83.88, below the EUR 120 minimum. Novo Verde’s flat fee equals the per kg fee at about 460 kg on its average values, so below 1 tonne the flat fee costs a 250 kg brand EUR 68.54 more than the per kg fee would.

Belgium: a EUR 100 floor and a 300 kg take-back line

Belgium’s line is narrow and is not a fee line. The Interregional Packaging Commission (IRPC), the regulator under the cooperation agreement of 4 November 2008, says that a company placing less than 300 kg of packaging on the Belgian market is exempt from the take-back obligation, and that membership of Fost Plus or Valipac is not compulsory; a non-member must handle reporting and take-back itself (IRPC, General questions). The reporting duty, on SPI’s reading of the IRPC page, still applies under 300 kg.

For members, Fost Plus charges from the first kilogram. Its Declaration page sets the minimum contribution at EUR 100, or EUR 250 for a member placing obstructive or household hazardous waste packaging, and a member declaring only reusable packaging pays the minimum. It offers a discount of EUR 50 for payment by direct debit, sets 28 February as the annual deadline, and charges a fine of 1% of the previous contribution per month of delay. The separate litter levy is not invoiced to companies whose levy would be under EUR 500 (Fost Plus, Litter levy on packaging).

Method. The blended Fost Plus rate on SPI’s mix is EUR 0.33676 per kg in 2026 and EUR 0.34828 in 2027, after the PE rigid line rises from EUR 0.8019 to EUR 0.8403. The EUR 100 minimum binds below about 297 kg.

Luxembourg: a EUR 50 floor and annual billing

Luxembourg has no small-producer line in law or in Valorlux’s rules. The Administration de l’environnement’s guide of December 2025 says a household packaging producer must contract an approved body to carry out its obligations and names Valorlux as the only approved body for packaging, with no volume exemption (AEV guide). Valorlux’s FAQ sets the minimum contribution at EUR 50 and says a member declaring only reusable packaging pays it.

Valorlux’s general conditions, version V.3, add three small-member rules. The board sets the minimum, which may not exceed EUR 125. A member whose annual contribution is under EUR 500 is billed once a year, with the fourth-quarter invoice, rather than by quarterly advances. A declaration not received by the last day of March costs 1% of the annual contribution, with a minimum of EUR 50, for each month (article 5.3). The FAQ also describes an automatic declaration based on the company’s turnover, available in very specific cases after a first reference declaration.

Method. The blended Valorlux rate on SPI’s mix is EUR 0.11525 per kg in 2026 and EUR 0.13935 in 2027, a rise of 20.9% within the scheme. The EUR 50 floor binds below about 434 kg.

Scenarios: one small brand, three sizes, six markets

SPI ran the same brand at three sizes, 250 kg, 1,200 kg and 12,000 kg a year in each market, all SPI assumptions, on 2026 and published 2027 rates (Exhibit 10). Every figure is in euro, so the rows can be compared and summed.

The per kg cost is not a straight line. At 250 kg per market, three floors and Austria’s reporting route set the bill, and the brand pays EUR 0.2529 per kg across 1,500 kg. At 1,200 kg, Austria’s flat fee and the two no-fee lines bring it down to EUR 0.1521. At 12,000 kg, Austria leaves its flat-fee band and Ireland’s thresholds are crossed, so the rate rises again to EUR 0.2172, with the Netherlands still at zero.

SPI calculation: at the low case, the floors in Belgium, Luxembourg and Portugal add EUR 15.81, EUR 21.19 and EUR 36.12, or EUR 73.12 in total, to fees that would otherwise sum to EUR 196.88 in those three markets: an uplift of 37.1%. At the high case, Austria alone is 33.6% of the six-market bill, because its blended rate of EUR 0.4376 per kg is the highest of the six on this mix.

For 2027, the published tables move the base case in two markets only: Belgium by EUR 13.83 and Luxembourg by EUR 28.92, on SPI’s mix. The flat fees and floors SPI could read are unchanged, and the Dutch, Austrian and Irish lines are set by law or policy rather than by the annual table.

A decision table for a small brand selling in several markets

Exhibit 11 turns the rules into one question per market, ordered by how much a wrong answer would cost a small brand. It is business guidance, not legal advice.

Reading the table. A brand at 1,200 kg in all six markets answers no in the Netherlands and Ireland, yes to Austria’s flat band and no to Portugal’s 1 tonne question, so it pays per kg in Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg. A brand at 250 kg takes the reporting route in Austria, the SPV floor in Portugal and the floors in the Benelux. A brand at 12,000 kg answers yes in Ireland if its turnover exceeds EUR 1 million and leaves Austria’s band.

The EU layer: no de minimis for fees, relief for representatives in negotiation

The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), Regulation (EU) 2025/40, applies from 12 August 2026 and sits above all six schemes. The SPI Regulation Tracker holds it as rule PR-EU-001, and the proposed suspension of the authorised representative duty as PR-EU-012.

Two PPWR rules matter most for small brands. First, Article 3(1)(13)(b) shifts the manufacturer role: where the brand owner is a micro-enterprise under Recommendation 2003/361/EC, fewer than 10 persons and turnover or balance sheet of no more than EUR 2 million, and its supplier is in the same Member State, the supplier is the manufacturer (Commission Notice C/2026/3084, section 2). Second, Article 45(3) has required a producer that sells directly to end users in another Member State to appoint an authorised representative there since 12 August 2026 (PR-EU-012).

Where the institutions stand. The Commission’s Omnibus VIII proposal, COM(2025) 982 of 10 December 2025, would suspend Article 45(3) for EU-established producers until 1 January 2035. Parliament adopted its first-reading position on 20 October 2026 and referred the file back to committee for negotiations (procedure file 2025/0395(COD)). Its press release limits the relief to EU-based small and micro enterprises with fewer than 50 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet under EUR 10 million, until 2035 or until a wider circular economy act is adopted. The Permanent Representatives Committee agreed the Council’s negotiating mandate on 21 October 2026 (Council document 14765/26). It suspends the duty for a producer established in a Member State, for each other Member State where it places less than 1 tonne of packaging in a calendar year, until 1 January 2032, asks the Commission to review the duration by 31 December 2030, and lets a competent authority require a representative from a producer in breach of its EPR obligations.

What the Member States asked for. A note to the Environment Council of 12 October 2026, submitted by Austria with Czechia and Estonia (14126/26 of 9 October 2026), calls for a proportionate EPR framework for small producers: a tiered approach with a de minimis threshold and, for EU producers placing small quantities, relief from the authorised representative and a simplified flat-rate contribution. The note proposes no new thresholds. It also says the representative remains useful for enforcement where cross-border activity is substantial.