EU Packaging Regulation Takes Effect August 12, Reshaping Compliance Rules

Countdown to Direct Application

One month before Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste becomes directly applicable across the European Union, businesses that place packaged goods on the EU market are being urged to review their compliance status. According to a legal analysis published by delfi.lv, the regulation will start direct application on August 12, 2026, replacing the national implementation models built on the older Directive 94/62/EC. In Latvia, that directive had been transposed through the national Packaging Law; from the effective date, the EU regulation applies directly, without needing further national legislation.

The timing coincides with a separate development: the Omnibus Directive (EU) 2026/470 has temporarily postponed formal sustainability-reporting obligations for EU companies. But delfi.lv notes that other EU legal instruments, including the Packaging Regulation, are moving in the opposite direction, significantly expanding the sustainability duties and liability exposure of manufacturing and sales companies across member states.

New Requirements Across the Packaging Life Cycle

Regulation (EU) 2025/40 sets uniform criteria for packaging production, use, classification and disposal that apply in every member state. Key requirements identified in the analysis include:

• A ban on placing packaging on the market containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) above set concentration limits, or combined concentrations of lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium above regulatory thresholds
• A mandatory obligation to ensure packaging is recyclable or reusable
• A requirement to reduce packaging weight and volume to the minimum needed for functionality
• A ban on packaging designed only to make a product appear larger, including double walls, false bottoms and unnecessary layers
• Restrictions on excessive empty space in group, transport and e-commerce packaging
• A ban, from 2030, on several packaging formats currently in common use across the EU market
• Measures to encourage consumer use of reusable or self-supplied packaging

The definition of packaging under the regulation is broad enough to capture components not traditionally treated as separate compliance items, including tea bags, stickers applied to fruit and vegetables, matchboxes, staples, dispensers and mascara brushes — items that are difficult to separate from the packaged product and recycle independently.

Manufacturers Challenge the Regulation in Court

The scope of the new rules has drawn strong opposition from European packaging manufacturers. According to delfi.lv, more than ten complaints have been filed with the EU court seeking full or partial annulment of the Packaging Regulation. The complainants argue that its requirements are disproportionate, harm competition, and that the regulation exceeds the environmental competence granted to the EU under Article 192 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), even though it was formally adopted under Article 114, the EU's internal-market harmonization power. Among other provisions, the complainants want the single-use plastics ban and the obligation on member states to introduce a comprehensive packaging deposit system removed from the regulation.

The analysis draws a parallel with Case C-376/98, the "Tobacco Advertising" case, in which the EU Court of Justice fully annulled Directive 98/43/EC on tobacco advertising after ruling that Article 114 cannot be used to pursue goals — such as public health — that fall outside genuine internal-market harmonization. The court found that EU institutions may not use internal-market competence as a route around policy areas where member states retain greater autonomy, including environmental protection, where the EU is limited to setting minimum standards.

Compliance Timeline and Penalties

Legally, the reform marks a shift from a product-conformity standard to a full life-cycle responsibility standard for packaging. Violations carry recall or market-withdrawal of non-compliant packaging, together with administrative penalties that the regulation requires to be "effective" — meaning significant enough for businesses to feel. delfi.lv's analysis advises that not only packaging producers and distributors, but also manufacturing companies and service providers across sectors, should assess which requirements of the Packaging Regulation apply to their operations and begin adapting ahead of the deadline, to reduce the risk of supply-chain delays and the use of non-compliant packaging once direct application begins on August 12, 2026.