Manufacturer or supplier: who owes what under the PPWR

One manufacturer per chain

The manufacturer is whoever makes the packaging, or has it made, and places it on the market under its own name or brand (Art. 15). The Commission's reading is that there is always only one manufacturer in a supply chain. For sales packaging that is normally the company that fills it and owns the brand. For unbranded packaging it is whoever orders it and decides its design. A converter that sells stock boxes under its own name is the manufacturer of those boxes.

An importer or a distributor becomes the manufacturer the moment it puts its own name or brand on the packaging, or changes it in a way that affects conformity (Art. 21). A merchant that fills unbranded boxes is not the manufacturer; one that prints its logo on them is.

What the manufacturer owes

• the conformity assessment of each packaging item, under Module A, with no notified body
• the technical file of Annex VII, which cannot be delegated
• the EU declaration of conformity of Annex VIII, one per packaging type
• its name and contact on the packaging, and the file and declaration kept for 5 years, 10 for reusable packaging, and produced within 10 days of an authority's request (Art. 15, 38, 39)

A micro-enterprise, fewer than 10 people and at most 2 million euro of turnover, may pass these duties to its EU supplier of the packaging (Art. 15(12)).

What the supplier owes

Everyone who supplies the manufacturer with packaging or packaging material gives it all the information and documentation needed to show conformity, including what Annex VII asks for, in a language the manufacturer understands (Art. 16). No format, no deadline of its own, no declaration of its own. The supplier cannot refuse, and the responsibility for the packaging does not move to it.

What the importer and the distributor owe

An importer checks that the non-EU manufacturer ran the assessment and holds the file, puts its own name on the packaging and keeps a copy of the declaration (Art. 18). A distributor checks, before selling on, that the producer is registered for extended producer responsibility, that the identification and contact marks are there and, from 2028, that the label is right (Art. 19). It holds no technical file.

Everyone in the chain names its suppliers and its customers to an authority on request, for 5 years, 10 for reusable packaging (Art. 22).

So what does your customer get to ask for

If you sell board, film, ink or paper to a converter or a brand owner, you are a supplier: your customer may ask for the PPWR information, the data sheet and, for food contact, the declaration of compliance, and you cannot refuse. If you print or convert packaging that your customer sells under its brand, you are its supplier too. If you sell packaging under your own name, you are the manufacturer and you need the file and the declaration yourself. Complizer's three documents cover the supplier's side from the maker's files; the manufacturer builds its declaration on them.