Private Label Packaging: Who Bears Compliance Responsibility Under the PPWR?

Private label packaging sits at one of the most commercially sensitive intersections in the EU’s new packaging framework. A retailer that sources products from a third-party manufacturer and sells them under its own brand has, for decades, been able to treat packaging compliance as someone else’s problem and more specifically the supplier’s. The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation changes that position fundamentally. Under the PPWR, if your name or trademark is on the packaging, the compliance obligation is yours.

 

How the PPWR Defines “Manufacturer”

The starting point for understanding private label liability under the PPWR is the regulation’s definition of “manufacturer”, which differs significantly from the colloquial meaning of the term. Under the PPWR, the manufacturer is not necessarily the company that physically produces the packaging. Instead, the manufacturer is defined as the company that places packaging on the EU market under its own name or trademark.

This definition has a precise and far-reaching implication for private label operators. A retailer that purchases finished products from a contract manufacturer and sells them under its own store brand is, under the PPWR, the manufacturer of that packaging (with limited exceptions, such as where the retailer is a micro-enterprise and the packaging supplier is in the same Member State). It bears the full obligations that come with that role: drawing up the technical documentation required by Annex VII, preparing the Declaration of Conformity, ensuring the packaging meets all applicable requirements under Articles 5 through 12 and registering as a producer for EPR purposes.

The same logic applies to importers. An EU-established business that imports packaged products from a non-EU country and places them on the EU market under its own brand becomes the manufacturer under Article 21 of the PPWR, even if the actual packaging was designed and produced entirely outside the EU. The physical location of the factory that made the packaging is legally irrelevant. What matters is who is putting the product on the EU market under their name.

 

What This Means for Supplier Contracts

A supply contract that assigns packaging compliance responsibility to the manufacturer, in the conventional sense of the word, does not change the legal position under the PPWR. The contract may give you commercial recourse against the supplier if the packaging turns out to be non-compliant, but it does not protect you from regulatory action by national authorities.

This matters in practice because many private label operators have historically relied on supplier declarations and self-certifications as their primary compliance tool. Under the PPWR, this approach is insufficient. The manufacturer, in the PPWR sense, must hold the technical documentation itself, must be able to produce it on request to market surveillance authorities and must ensure that documentation is updated when packaging design or composition changes. Collecting a declaration from your supplier and filing it is not the same as holding verified technical documentation.

 

The Distributor’s Position

Distributors, businesses that make packaging available on the market but are neither the manufacturer nor the importer, occupy a more limited compliance role, but they are not exempt. Under Article 19 of the PPWR, distributors must verify that the producer is registered for EPR purposes in the relevant member state, confirm that labelling requirements in accordance with Article 12 are met and that the manufacturer and importer have complied with the requirements of Article 15 (5) and (6) and Article 18 (3), respectively. They must also refuse to make non-compliant packaging available on the market and inform authorities when packaging presents a risk of non-conformity.

Critically, distributors can inadvertently become manufacturers. Article 21 states that if a distributor (or importer) applies its own branding to packaging or if it modifies the packaging in any way that could affect compliance, it crosses the threshold into manufacturer territory and assumes the full set of manufacturer obligations.

 

 

EPR Registration and Reporting

The producer responsibility dimension of the PPWR adds a further layer to private label complexity. Under the PPWR and the national EPR systems that implement it, the producer must register with the relevant national producer responsibility organization or registry in each member state where its packaging becomes waste. It must report on the weight and type of packaging placed on the market and pay the applicable EPR fees.

For retailers operating across multiple EU member states, this means maintaining registrations and reporting obligations in each country where their private label products are sold, which is a substantially more complex administrative task than relying on suppliers to manage compliance at source. The PPWR does not provide for a single registration covering all member states, though a digital EU-wide EPR One-Stop Shop, which we covered in a previous article, is currently being advocated by a broad coalition of industry associations as part of the Circular Economy Act.

 

What Private Label Operators Should Be Doing Now

The practical steps for private label operators are straightforward, even if the underlying complexity is significant:

• Map your packaging portfolio against the PPWR’s operator role definitions. For each packaging type, identify whether your business is acting as manufacturer, importer or distributor under the PPWR’s specific definitions.
• Collect and verify technical documentation from suppliers, including substance composition data, recyclability assessments and Declarations of Conformity. Verify these against the actual regulatory requirements.
• Register for EPR in each relevant member state. In most EU countries, EPR registration for packaging is already mandatory and predates the PPWR, but the new regulation introduces additional requirements on what must be reported and documented.
• Update supplier contracts to require ongoing documentation updates when packaging design or composition changes and to specify the documentation standard required.

 

Conclusion

The PPWR leaves private label operators with a clear and demanding compliance position. If your brand name is on the packaging, the regulation treats you as the manufacturer, with all the documentation, conformity assessment and EPR obligations that entails. The contractual relationship with the physical producer of the packaging is a commercial matter and it does not alter the legal position. For retailers and importers with large private label portfolios, the immediate priority is understanding which role the PPWR assigns to each product line and building the documentation and registration infrastructure to meet it.

Pack-Lab supports private label operators and importers in navigating their obligations under the PPWR, including regulatory consulting on operator role assessment, technical documentation preparation and Declaration of Compliance support. Contact us to discuss your packaging portfolio.