You have fewer than 10 employees. Under PPWR, that doesn’t automatically make your packaging supplier the one who has to prove compliance.

Keywords: PPWR cosmetics packaging 2026 · Declaration of Conformity packaging EU · Regulation (EU) 2025/40 cosmetics · packaging waste regulation deadline August 2026

If your brand has fewer than ten employees, there is a specific assumption worth checking before your next packaging order: that being small is what protects you from the compliance paperwork due on 12 August 2026. For most indie brands, it doesn’t — and the reason is more specific than most guidance on this topic explains.

On 12 August 2026, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2025/40) starts applying in full across all 27 member states. From that date, every distinct packaging type placed on the EU market needs a signed Declaration of Conformity, backed by a technical file, confirming it meets the essential requirements under Articles 5 to 12. There is no transition period for this specific obligation: packaging placed on the market after 12 August 2026 needs one, even if it was produced before that date.

For a cosmetics brand, “packaging” is not just the outer box. It is the primary container, the pump or airless dispenser, the cap, the printed carton, the label substrate, the shrink band — every component that has direct contact with, or wraps around, the product. Each of those, in each distinct format, is its own packaging type under the Regulation.

Who the Regulation considers the “manufacturer”

PPWR obligations do not automatically fall on whoever molds the bottle or prints the carton. The Regulation assigns the “manufacturer” role to the party that designs the packaging, sets its specifications, and puts its brand on it. For most indie cosmetics brands, that is the brand itself — not the contract packager, not the component supplier. The compliance paperwork, in other words, is usually the brand’s problem, not the factory’s.

There is one case where this shifts — and it is narrower than most brands assume, and it is not an exemption from compliance. The packaging still has to meet every PPWR requirement either way. What can change is who is legally responsible for proving it. If the brand qualifies as a micro-enterprise — fewer than 10 employees, and annual turnover or balance sheet total under €2 million — and its packaging supplier is established in the same EU member state as the brand, the responsibility for the Declaration of Conformity and the technical file transfers to that supplier, who is then treated as the manufacturer for that purpose. Both conditions have to hold at the same time.

• A brand buying bottles from a supplier in its own member state: the manufacturer role — and the paperwork — transfers to the supplier. The packaging itself still has to comply; only who signs for it changes.

  
  

• The same brand buying the same bottles from a supplier in a different EU country: the responsibility does not transfer. The brand remains the manufacturer, regardless of headcount.

  
  

• A brand of any size sourcing components from outside the EU — which covers most packaging bought from Asia: the brand remains the manufacturer.

  
  

• A brand that has grown past 10 employees or €2 million turnover, even if it started as a micro-enterprise: the responsibility transfers back to the brand.

  
  

Most indie brands source packaging internationally — a supplier in one country for bottles, another for pumps, a printer in a third for cartons. That sourcing pattern, completely ordinary for an indie brand, is exactly what keeps most brands as the manufacturer — responsible for their own Declaration of Conformity — when they assumed that responsibility had already shifted to someone else.

The obligation that never transfers

Even in the narrow case where the manufacturer role does transfer to a same-country supplier — a genuine micro-enterprise buying locally — Extended Producer Responsibility obligations remain the brand’s own responsibility in every member state where the product is sold: registration with the national EPR scheme, reporting of packaging volumes and materials by type, and, where the brand has no establishment in that country, appointment of an authorised representative. There is no size-based exemption from EPR, for anyone — and no transfer of it, either.

What a valid Declaration of Conformity actually has to say

Annex VIII sets out what a Declaration of Conformity contains, and it is a defined list, not a general statement. A valid declaration includes:

• A unique identification number linking the declaration to a specific packaging type and batch.

  
  

• The name and address of the manufacturer, or the authorised representative if applicable.

  
  

• An explicit statement that the declaration is issued under the manufacturer’s sole responsibility.

  
  

• The specific requirements under Articles 5 to 12 being declared against, and the conformity assessment procedure applied.

  
  

• A reference to the supporting technical file.

  
  

• A dated signature.

  
  

A single-page letter stating “our packaging complies with PPWR” across an entire product range does not meet this bar. Each distinct packaging type needs its own declaration, tied to its own technical file — which means the real question for most brands is not whether they have a Declaration of Conformity, but how many they actually need.

What sits behind the declaration

The Declaration of Conformity is the summary page. Behind it, market surveillance authorities expect a technical file with the evidence: material composition, component-level data from every supplier — bottle, cap, pump, label, secondary carton — any testing carried out, and, for most cosmetics packaging, proof that heavy metal content stays under threshold. The combined total of lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium across all packaging components is capped at 100 ppm, and that threshold applies to inks, coatings and adhesives, not only the visible plastic or glass.

What’s due in August, and what’s due later

Not every PPWR requirement lands on 12 August 2026. Design-for-recycling grading, and the restrictions tied to packaging graded below the recyclability threshold, apply from 2030; minimum recycled content targets and the phase-out of certain single-use formats follow their own separate timelines further out. What is due on 12 August 2026, with no transition period, is narrower and more immediate: the Declaration of Conformity and its supporting technical file.

One deadline among several

PPWR does not arrive in isolation. Brands tracking their July and September 2026 calendar already have the fragrance allergen labelling deadline (31 July) and the EmpCo green claims framework (27 September) on it. The Declaration of Conformity deadline sits between those two, and touches a different function within the business — packaging and supply chain, rather than formulation or marketing — which is exactly why it is the one most likely to be missed. It doesn’t compete with the other two for attention; if anything, it is easier to overlook because it doesn’t sound like a cosmetics regulation at all.

Before the next packaging order:

1. List every distinct packaging type across the range — not every SKU, every distinct format, material and component combination.

   
   

2. For each supplier, confirm in writing who is legally the “manufacturer” under PPWR — the brand, or the supplier — based on enterprise size and supplier location.

   
   

3. Request supplier data on material composition and heavy metal content for every component, not only the primary container.

   
   

4. Draft — or request from whoever is designated manufacturer — a Declaration of Conformity per Annex VIII for each packaging type, referencing its technical file.

   
   

5. Confirm EPR registration status in every member state where the product is placed on the market — this obligation stands regardless of who signs the Declaration of Conformity.

   
   

Penalties for non-compliance are set nationally, not harmonised at EU level: member states are required to introduce effective, proportionate and dissuasive enforcement measures, but the specific fines vary by country. The more immediate consequence for most brands is simpler than a fine. Without a valid Declaration of Conformity, packaging cannot legally be placed on the EU market from 12 August 2026 — a risk that plays out at the border and at retail, not only on paper.

At Cláritas Regulatory, we help indie brands determine who carries the manufacturer obligation across their packaging portfolio, draft the Declaration of Conformity and technical file per packaging type, and confirm EPR registration status market by market. If you want a clear answer on who is the manufacturer for your packaging before 12 August, get in touch.

Fuentes: Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (PPWR); European Commission PPWR guidance document C(2026) 3702; Annex VIII (Declaration of Conformity); Articles 4–12 (essential requirements) and 39 (Declaration of Conformity).