The European National Registers for Packaging (EUNR) has published a clarification on the definition of „producer“ under the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). The document aims to clarify responsibilities under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), particularly making cross-border supply chains easier to understand.
The Interpretation refers to the obligations under Article 44 et seq. of the PPWR. According to this provision, the producer/manufacturer is always to be determined in the EU Member State in which the packaging in question becomes waste. The decisive factor is which company is the first link in the national supply chain. However, depending on the type of packaging, this supply chain begins at different points.
The supply chain decides on the manufacturer's role
For transport, service, and primary production packaging that already has its final form as empty packaging, the supply chain begins with the fully packaged item. If, however, it concerns packaging such as films, which only attain their final form upon filling, the supply chain only begins with the filling process. For sales and secondary packaging, the time of filling also applies as the starting point of the supply chain.
A manufacturer of the empty packaging or the packaged product is considered the producer if they are established in the respective member state. If the manufacturer is based abroad, the first company in the national supply chain – such as an importer or distributor – generally takes on this role. Only if the goods are delivered directly from abroad to a private or commercial end user does the foreign company remain the producer. EUNR illustrates a corresponding decision logic in a diagram.
End-user clearly defined
The Document it also clarifies that the term „end-user“ in relation to sales and outer packaging refers to the consumer or industrial end-user of the packaged product. For transport, service, and primary production packaging, the end-user of the product is also considered decisive – but not the user of the packaging material. For example, a filler who procures stretch film or pallets from another Member State to package their own products is not an end-user of these packaging materials.
EUNR points out that the Decision support tool a simplified representation and does not depict all special cases of the PPWR. In particular, in the case of re-imports, the most recent import process must always be considered.
Source: Northern European Defence Cooperation
