Retail(ing) responsibly – following the PPWR. Ensuring across-the-board system participation for own brands and imports.

When the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) begins applying on 12 August 2026, retail companies' extended producer responsibility for packaging for own brands and imports will change considerably, with retailers taking on financial responsibility.

Retail companies that sell own brands or imports in their respective packaging without a domestic intermediary retailer must participate the packaging with a system themselves before distribution. To comply with their legal obligations and ensure across-the-board financing of packaging recycling within Germany, system participation has to take place by 12 August 2026. Market participants e.g. retailers need to act now.

There is no transition period. If system participation is not adjusted in time, a distribution ban will be placed on the packaged products from 12 August 2026 onwards.  

What is changing for whom and why?

Responsibilities are being assigned differently under the PPWR, which distinguishes between the role of the manufacturer and the producer. For retail companies, the key changes related to retail and grouped packaging are set out below:

What is changing for own brands?

  • Under the PPWR, 'manufacturer' means a company that has products designed or manufactured under its own name or trademark by third parties (i.e. 'contract manufacturing'). The commissioning companies are deemed to be manufacturers and bear responsibility for preparing the packaging's technical documentation and declaration of conformity.

    Please note: it does not matter if the ordering party (retail company) legally owns the trademark. Licensees or affiliated group companies can also be manufacturers. What matters is the connection between the name or the trademark and the associated influence on the packaging. Even if the contract packager (supplier) is also listed on the packaging, it does not share responsibility and the obligations are not transferred.

    Exception: if the ordering party is a micro-enterprise (pursuant to Recommendation 2003/361/EC: fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total not exceeding two million euros), the following applies: if the supplier of the packaged products is based in the same Member State, it is the manufacturer.

  • For the purposes of extended producer responsibility (EPR), the producer under the PPWR is either the manufacturer, importer or distributor. For own brands, the brand name defines the retail company as the manufacturer of the packaged products. As such, the retail company also bears producer responsibility for this packaging.
     

What is changing for imports without a domestic intermediary retailer?

  • The foreign supplier or manufacturing company – or rather the company that makes the packaged goods available for the first time – is considered the manufacturer. It bears responsibility for the packaging's technical documentation and declaration of conformity.

  • For imports (manufacturer of the third-party brand is based abroad), the producer is the first party to make the goods available within the domestic supply chain (domestic precedence). If the import does not involve a domestic intermediary retailer, then the extended producer responsibility (EPR) lies with the domestic retail company.

Retailers under obligation – system participation for own brands and imports

This chart shows an overview of the system participation requirement for packaging and who is responsible for it. There is a distinction between own brands and third-party brands, and between domestic sourcing and sourcing from abroad. For own brands, responsibility for system participation always lies with the retail company, regardless of whether the goods are sourced domestically or from abroad. For third-party brands sourced domestically, the supplier or manufacturer is responsible. For third-party brands sourced from abroad (imports without intermediary retailers), the responsibility lies with the retail company. The ticks in the table show who is required to undertake system participation in different scenarios.

What do affected retail companies need to do now?

To comply with their legal obligations and ensure across-the-board financing for packaging recycling, affected companies need to act immediately: 

You need information about the weights and material groups of the packaging for your own brands and imports so that you can accurately forecast your volumes after 12 August 2026.

Enter into new agreements or expand existing contracts with your system operators for the additional volumes – in good time, ideally well before deadline.

Add and review all the relevant brand names in your registration.

Make sure that the information you provide matches exactly what you report to your system operator.

Record all the relevant packaging and volume data so that the information forms a robust foundation for your year-end volume report and any subsequent declaration of completeness for the full-year actual volumes, including the additional volumes after 12 August 2026.

The change in responsibility for own brands and imports has to take effect on 12 August 2026, by which time retail companies under obligation will have to have participated any relevant packaging with a system before distribution. Across-the-board packaging recycling financing can only be achieved by full compliance with these obligations.