Packaging regulation in retail and distribution: banned formats and reuse targets
For distribution, Regulation (EU) 2025/40 affects two areas: the formats that can no longer be placed on the market from 1 January 2030, and the share of transport packaging that must be reusable from the same date. The documentary obligations, on the other hand, already apply from 12 August 2026 to whoever places goods on the market under its own trademark.
- Legal reference
- Arts. 24, 25 and 29
- Last updated
- Official text
- Regulation (EU) 2025/40
The software for packaging compliance qualifies the role, compiles the technical documentation and the declaration. Generate your documents for free
The formats banned from 1 January 2030
Article 25 bans placing on the market packaging in the formats and for the uses listed in Annex V. Three entries concern the point of sale directly.
| Format | Restriction |
|---|---|
| Single-use plastic grouped packaging | Stretch film and shrink film used at the point of sale to group products sold in bottles, cans, tins, jars, tubs and trays, designed as convenience packaging to encourage the purchase of more than one product. Grouped packaging needed to facilitate handling is excluded |
| Single-use plastic for fresh fruit and vegetables | Pre-packed fresh produce under 1.5 kg: nets, bags, trays, containers. Member States may introduce justified exemptions |
| Lightweight plastic carrier bags | Banned, except where required for hygiene reasons or supplied as packaging for loose food, when this helps prevent food waste |
Article 25(2) leaves Member States free to maintain restrictions adopted before 1 January 2025 on formats listed in Annex V made of materials other than those listed.
The reuse targets for transport packaging
Article 29 provides that, from 1 January 2030, economic operators using transport packaging, or sales packaging used for transport, must ensure that at least 40% in total is made up of reusable packaging within a reuse system.
The text lists the formats concerned: pallets, foldable plastic crates, boxes, trays, plastic crates, intermediate bulk containers, buckets, drums and jerrycans of any size and material, including flexible formats, pallet wraps and straps for stabilising products.
From 1 January 2040 operators must work towards bringing that same share to 70%.
Paragraph 2 of the same article provides for separate rules for transport between different sites where the same operator carries out its activity.
What already applies from 12 August 2026
Whoever places packaged products on the market under its own trademark, including private-label lines, is considered a manufacturer under Article 21 and draws up technical documentation and an EU declaration of conformity for each type of packaging.
Whoever resells without applying its own trademark and without modifying the packaging remains a distributor: it does not draw up the declaration, but verifies that the manufacturer has done so and retains the information.
The traceability obligation under Article 22 applies to everyone, with no size-based exemptions: identifying, on request, who supplied the packaging or packaged products and to whom they were supplied, for five years in the case of single-use packaging and ten in the case of reusable packaging.
The two questions to ask now
Which product lines use the formats listed in Annex V. Replacing them requires redesign, supplier qualification and price-list lead times: four years is less than it seems.
What share of transport packaging is already reusable. The 40% target for 2030 is measured against the total, and the starting baseline needs to be known before it can be planned for.
References
Regulation (EU) 2025/40 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 2024 on packaging and packaging waste, in OJ L of 22 January 2025.
- Art. 21 · Manufacturer obligations applied to importers and distributors
- Art. 22 · Identification of economic operators
- Art. 24 · Excessive packaging
- Art. 25 and Annex V · Restrictions on the use of certain formats
- Art. 29 · Reuse targets
- Annexes VII and VIII · Technical documentation and EU declaration of conformity
Official text: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2025/40/oj