Commission sets out EPR relief for packaging producers under 10 tonnes. EU register rules are 245 days late

What the PPWR already offers small producers

The PPWR has applied since 12 August 2026 and treats every operator that first makes packaging available in a Member State as a producer there, with registration and EPR duties in that country. The Regulation’s default is that size does not matter. Austria’s note to ministers, Council document 14126/26, points out that Article 45(1) attaches EPR obligations to any quantity of packaging placed on the market, with no volume-based de minimis exemption³.

The relief that exists is narrower. The same note cites Article 44(8), read with Annex IX, Part B, point 2, which provides a reduced reporting data set for producers below 10 tonnes a year, and Article 46(5), which requires PROs not to impose a disproportionate burden on producers of small quantities. The Commission’s June 2026 guidance notice, C/2026/3084, adds a separate size rule: under Article 3(1)(13)(b), a supplier in the same Member State becomes the manufacturer when the brand owner is a micro-enterprise, meaning fewer than 10 employees and turnover or balance sheet total of no more than EUR 2 million⁶.

The new Commission page gathers these threads for smaller firms. It describes flexibilities for producers “producing less than 10 tonnes of packaging per calendar year” and lists the special conditions Member States and PROs can use: exemptions from administrative costs such as registration fees, proportionate flat EPR fees, fewer update requirements, fast-track procedures, help desks, and fewer documentation duties, inspections or audits¹.

Those are options, not rights. The page says Member States “can” exempt and “can” set flat fees, and it reminds producers that they must still comply with existing national EPR registration rules where their packaging is likely to become waste.

“the Commission has called on Member States to enforce this obligation in a constructive and pragmatic way and abstain from sanctioning operators.” European Commission, small-business EPR page, mid-October 2026

What changed in the past fortnight

5 October: the committee vote. The European Parliament’s Environment committee voted on the Omnibus VIII file that would pause the authorised-representative duty in Article 45(3). SPI covered the vote and the split in industry reaction on 14 October in Industry splits over pausing the EU packaging-representative duty, so this piece does not repeat it. The plenary vote is indicated for 19 October 2026.

9 October: Austria’s note. The Council secretariat circulated note 14126/26, an any other business (AOB) item from Austria supported by Czechia and Estonia³. Beyond the representative duty, it asks for a tiered system: a genuine de minimis exemption from registration, EPR obligations, scheme participation and fees for producers placing minimal volumes, and a simplified regime above that line with a flat-rate EPR contribution in place of a quantity-based fee. It names no tonnage for either tier.

9 October: a single entry point. The same note asks the Commission for one EU-wide portal for EPR registration across packaging, batteries, electrical equipment and textiles, where producers supply basic company data once. It also asks that the Commission’s implementing act on registration not be adopted until that entry point exists, which would push back the start of the 18-month register window.

12 October: ministers debate. The Environment Council’s meeting page records Austria’s item under other business as a call for the “need to simplify extended producer responsibility (EPR) for small producers” under the PPWR, with no decision taken². The main items that day were the emissions trading review and EU positions for the COP31 and COP17 summits.

Agence Europe’s account of the debate, published on 12 October, reported that ministers agreed on cutting burdens but split on how far to go. It reported that Czechia proposed a quantity threshold, Poland and Belgium backed a de minimis principle, Italy supported a temporary suspension for EU producers placing less than 10 tonnes a year in each Member State, and Spain and others warned about funding for waste management. These positions are reported by Agence Europe and not confirmed in an official Council document.

The same report said the Environment Commissioner urged ministers to agree the representative suspension quickly, warning that widening talks to every EPR obligation could cause delay, and pointed to the coming Circular Economy Act for broader EPR harmonisation and digitalisation. Agence Europe also reported that the Irish Presidency said technical work continues on a pragmatic, temporary solution for small producers. Neither statement appears on the Council’s meeting page.

Mid-October: the Commission’s page. The guidance appeared on the Commission’s website in mid-October; the page carries no publication date, and Packaging Europe reported it on 15 October¹⁸. Its four practical points are the 10-tonne flexibilities, the 18-month register window, the call to abstain from sanctions on the representative duty, and a statement on online platforms.

“The requirement to register separately in each Member State remains a structural obstacle.” Austrian delegation, supported by Czechia and Estonia, Council note 14126/26, 9 October 2026

What the guidance says, point by point

The page is short, and each of its points sits on a different legal footing. Some restate the Regulation, some describe what Member States may choose to do, and one is a political request with no legal force behind it. The Commission’s own June notice says its guidance does not amend the Regulation and that only the Court of Justice can give binding interpretations⁶.

Fees. Member States can exempt small producers from administrative costs such as registration fees, and can set proportionate flat EPR fees. Several national schemes already do this, as the comparison below shows, so the change for most producers will depend on where they sell.

Registration. Producers must keep complying with existing national EPR registration rules where their packaging is likely to become waste. The page notes that these may be more favourable than the new rules, and the Commission’s Green Forum lists the national competent authorities, from Germany and France to Slovenia and Sweden⁷. The Commission’s case for the future system is that harmonised rules will align data formats and reporting obligations across all Member States, so a seller would report the same fields in every country.

The register window. The Commission will set uniform EU registration and reporting rules, “After which Member States will have 18 months to adapt their national registers” or set them up where they do not exist. The Green Forum’s implementation table lists the “Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) registration and reporting format” under Article 44(14), with a deadline of 12 February 2026, and lists no adoption. Article 44(14) itself requires the Commission to adopt those implementing acts by that date, covering the registration and reporting format, data granularity and the packaging types and material categories to be reported.

Online platforms. The page says platforms “are currently not required to ask for an EPR registration number when you use their services.” Once national registers are in place, sellers will have to submit a national registration number to the platform before using its service.

Who gains and who pays

Micro and small cross-border sellers. They gain the most from the guidance in principle, because the 10-tonne flexibilities and the call to hold back sanctions are aimed at them. In practice they still register in each Member State where packaging becomes waste, and the Commission says national rules continue to apply. A seller in five markets keeps five registrations until the EU format and the national registers arrive.

Marketplaces. Etsy, which hosts small sellers and also owns the resale app Depop, reported 8.76 million active sellers across its marketplaces in 2025 and gross merchandise sales of USD 11,916.9 million, according to its full-year 2025 results of 19 February 2026¹⁴. Those figures are global, not EU-only. The Commission page tells sellers that platforms do not yet have to ask for EPR registration numbers, which postpones a check that would fall on platforms with large numbers of small sellers.

Producer responsibility organisations. PROs carry the Article 46(5) duty not to overburden small producers, and their flat fees show what that looks like. France’s Citeo charges a flat EUR 110 excluding VAT for 2026 to companies placing fewer than 10,000 sales units a year, up from EUR 80 in 2025, its 2026 tariff guide shows. Austria’s ARA offers a flat EUR 150 a year to licence partners placing no more than 1,500 kg of household and 1,500 kg of commercial packaging, and invoices a minimum of EUR 90 a year, according to its 2026 tariff sheet¹².

Compliant larger producers. EXPRA’s concern is that relief which removes a responsible actor shifts costs to producers that pay in full. Austria’s note asks for a de minimis exemption from contributions too, which would move the cost of those producers’ packaging waste onto the rest of each scheme’s members.

Authorised-representative providers and registers. Providers lose EU-based demand if the pause is adopted, while the 18-month register work falls on national authorities. Germany’s register operator, the Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister, already runs the LUCID register that the VerpackDG keeps, according to the VerpackDG bill⁸.

Non-EU sellers. No version of the texts reviewed here eases their position, because the Omnibus VIII proposal keeps Member State powers to require a written mandate or other enforcement means for third-country producers⁵.

Why the register act decides the timetable

The guidance makes the harmonised system depend on one document: the implementing act on registration and reporting format under Article 44(14). The Commission’s Green Forum lists its legal deadline as 12 February 2026, and on 15 October 2026 that was 245 days ago, by SPI’s calculation. The Commission page still describes the act in the future tense.

Every later date hangs from it. Member States get 18 months after the act to adapt or set up registers, and only once those registers exist do platforms have to collect national registration numbers. Austria’s note asks the Commission not to adopt the act until a single EU entry point exists, which would delay the start of that 18-month window further³.

The wider guidance framework is older than the page. Commission Notice C/2026/3084, published in the Official Journal on 10 June 2026, answers 33 practical questions on the Regulation, including who is the producer when goods are sold online across borders⁶. The new page narrows that material to four topics for small businesses: fees, registration, representatives and platforms.

Small producers are therefore living under two systems at once. National rules decide registration and fees today, while the EU rules that would simplify reporting across borders have no adoption date. The Commission’s call to abstain from sanctions covers only the representative duty, not registration or fees.

How small-producer lines compare in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria and the UK

National schemes drew their own size lines long before the PPWR, and none of them uses the EU’s 10-tonne test as an entry threshold. Germany’s VerpackDG bill, Drucksache 21/5346, requires registration and system participation before packaging is first made available (sections 6 and 7). Size only changes the paperwork: producers under 10 tonnes report system data by 1 June of the following year (section 9), and producers below 80 tonnes of glass, 50 tonnes of paper and board and 30 tonnes of other materials file no completeness declaration (section 10)⁸.

France counts sales units, not tonnes. Citeo’s 2026 guide gives a flat declaration below 10,000 units a year, a simplified one from 10,000 to 500,000, and line-by-line declarations above that⁹. A foreign firm placing packaging in France for the first time must appoint a mandataire, a local representative, the same guide says.

In the Netherlands, Article 9 of the Besluit beheer verpakkingen 2014 obliges producers placing more than 50,000 kg of packaging a year to notify and meet their duties jointly. Verpact’s 2026 policy adds that single-use plastic packaging must be registered and declared even below that line¹¹. Austria, through ARA, offers the flat fee for up to 1,500 kg of household and 1,500 kg of commercial packaging.

The UK, outside the PPWR, uses a double test. Regulation 24 of SI 2024/1332 makes a business a small producer if its turnover was more than £1,000,000 and it supplied more than 25 tonnes of packaging, and a large producer above £2,000,000 and 50 tonnes; only large producers pay disposal fees¹³.