PPWR and Cosmetics: Your EU Responsible Person Is Not Your Packaging Representative

No. An EU Responsible Person appointed under Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 carries no obligations under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (EU) 2025/40. PPWR assigns its duties to the manufacturer, importer, distributor and producer of packaging. From 12 August 2026, a non-EU cosmetic brand carries those duties itself.

This catches brands out for an understandable reason. Most non-EU cosmetic companies hold exactly one EU regulatory relationship, and it is with their Responsible Person, so it is natural to assume that relationship covers whatever Europe asks for. It does not cover packaging. A brand can hold a valid CPNP notification, a complete Product Information File and a properly appointed Responsible Person, and still be selling unlawfully in Germany because nobody registered the cardboard box.

Key facts

Instrument	Applies from	Who is bound	Action required
Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (PPWR)	12 August 2026	Manufacturer, importer, distributor and producer of packaging. Not the cosmetics Responsible Person.	Establish which role you hold in each Member State, then register and appoint representatives accordingly.
PPWR Article 44, producer registration	12 August 2026	Whoever first makes packaging available on the market in a given Member State.	Register in that country’s producer register. There is no EU-wide registration.
PPWR Article 45(3), authorised representative	12 August 2026	Mandatory for producers established in another Member State. For third-country producers, Member States may require it.	Check the national position in each market, then appoint by written mandate where required.
Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, Responsible Person	Unchanged	The designated Responsible Person.	Product safety, the Product Information File, CPNP notification and label compliance. Packaging waste law sits outside this mandate.

Does an EU Responsible Person have PPWR obligations?

The cosmetics Responsible Person role is established under Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 and does not, by itself, extend to PPWR or extended producer responsibility obligations. The role carries real compliance duties, including the safety of the cosmetic product, the Product Information File, the CPNP notification and the accuracy of the label, but they sit within the cosmetics framework. Regulation (EU) 2025/40 never mentions the cosmetics Responsible Person and gives it no function.

The confusion usually starts with the label. The Responsible Person’s name and address appear on the pack because Article 19 of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 requires that disclosure. It identifies who holds the safety dossier. It is not a trademark, and it does not make that party the owner, seller or importer of the goods.

One exception is worth checking. If the entity acting as Responsible Person has also been named as importer of record on customs paperwork, it becomes the importer under PPWR and usually the producer too. Brands sometimes use their Responsible Person’s address on shipping documents because it is the only EU address they have, and rarely think to mention it.

Who actually carries the obligation?

PPWR splits responsibility between two roles that are easy to confuse, and a cosmetic brand can hold both at once.

The producer carries extended producer responsibility: registration, fees and reporting. This falls on whoever first makes the packaging available on the market in a given Member State, and it is not necessarily the company that made the packaging. If your goods reach EU consumers through an EU distributor or importer, that entity is the producer. If you sell directly to consumers, through your own webshop or as seller of record on a marketplace, you are the producer in every country you ship to. Using a marketplace fulfilment centre does not change this.

The manufacturer carries design conformity, the technical documentation and the Declaration of Conformity. This is decided by whose name or trademark is on the packaging and who controls the design specification, and there is only one manufacturer per packaging item across the whole EU. For a cosmetic brand that is almost always the brand owner, including where the brand sits outside the EU and a third party converts the cartons. A supplier declaration from your packaging converter does not move this obligation off your desk.

Is PPWR the same in every EU country?

Half of it is. The rules are harmonised and apply directly in all 27 Member States: the definitions of the roles, the design and sustainability requirements, the substance restrictions, the Declaration of Conformity and the criteria for adjusting fees by recyclability. The administration is not. Article 44 tells you to register in a Member State’s producer register but does not create one, and registers, scheme operators, fee levels and reporting deadlines all remain national. One rulebook, 27 filing systems.

Three administrative models are in use, and brands plan badly because they assume the German one is universal. Germany makes you register with a state body, then contract separately with a private scheme. France and Ireland run everything through a single producer responsibility organisation, with a state agency issuing the identifier behind it. Italy works through a national consortium with material-specific sub-consortia and a per-kilogram contribution.

Market	Where you register	Main scheme
Germany	LUCID Packaging Register	Dual system of your choice
France	Producer responsibility organisation, identifier from ADEME	Citeo, Léko or Adelphe
Italy	CONAI	CONAI and material consortia
Spain	National producer register	Ecoembes for household packaging
Netherlands	Verpact	Verpact
Ireland	Repak	Repak

Two points follow that brands underestimate. Registration is an application that gets reviewed, not a form that gets submitted, and several national registers have been running long queues, so a brand starting today in France or Italy is already behind. Italy also requires an Italian tax code to register directly, so a non-EU brand needs a representative simply to get through the door.

What must a non-EU brand selling directly to EU consumers do?

Register in the producer register, contract with a producer responsibility organisation, report packaging volumes by material, and pay the fees. Those obligations are assessed Member State by Member State, so selling into six EU markets means six sets of them. There is no single-window equivalent to the EU Responsible Person model, where one appointment covers all 27 Member States, and that is the biggest structural difference between the two regimes.

The authorised representative question is more nuanced than it is usually presented, and the distinction matters commercially. Article 45(3) of Regulation (EU) 2025/40 makes the appointment mandatory for a producer established in one Member State that makes packaging available in another. For a producer established outside the EU, the same provision allows Member States to require it rather than requiring it directly. Recital 123 draws that distinction explicitly.

So for a Korean, American or Swiss brand this is a question of national law, market by market, not a single EU answer. Six registrations do not automatically mean six representative appointments. Germany has exercised the option, and others may or may not have done so, which has to be checked rather than assumed.

Germany is the clearest example of a Member State that has taken up that option, and it also shows what enforcement looks like in practice. The German register agency treats registration in LUCID as a personal duty of the producer that cannot be delegated, while the representative named in your record handles everything afterwards in its own name. Enforcement then runs through the marketplaces rather than the regulator. Amazon has blocked listings without a valid LUCID number since July 2022, so the first sign of a problem is usually a delisting rather than a letter.

Separately, as at 17 August 2026 the European Commission has proposed suspending the representative obligation for EU-established producers. Check its status before relying on it.

What applies now, and what phases in?

• From 12 August 2026: producer registration under Article 44, extended producer responsibility obligations, and Article 45(3) authorised representative requirements where applicable.
• From 2030: design for recycling and recyclability requirements, minimum post-consumer recycled content in plastic packaging, and reuse and refill obligations for certain formats.
• Harmonised sorting labelling: applies once the European Commission adopts the implementing act specifying the symbols, still pending as at 17 August 2026. Plan label space now, on the assumption that a sorting mark will have to share the pack with the INCI list, batch number, Responsible Person address, period after opening symbol and declarable allergens already required by Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009.

Recommended actions

1. Map your route to market country by country. Regulatory lead, this month. Direct sales and sales through an EU importer give different answers, and you can hold different roles in different countries.
2. Check who is named as importer of record on your EU shipments. Logistics lead, this month. Confirm it is not your Responsible Person by default.
3. Start with the slowest register, not the largest market. Brand owner, immediately. France and Italy take longest, so they belong ahead of Germany in the queue.
4. Build the packaging inventory and collect supplier documentation. Packaging and procurement, within 90 days. Components per SKU, materials and weights, covering the primary pack, carton, shipping box, void fill and tape.
5. Read your Responsible Person agreement. Regulatory lead, this quarter. Get it in writing whether packaging law is inside or outside the mandate, before anyone needs to rely on the answer.

Cosmereg supports cosmetic brands with PPWR applicability assessments, packaging portfolio reviews and sorting label reviews against the existing requirements of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, alongside EU and UK cosmetics regulatory services.

Frequently asked questions

Does my EU Responsible Person handle PPWR for me?

No. Regulation (EU) 2025/40 gives no role to the Responsible Person designated under Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009. The two regulations govern different things: one the safety of the product, the other the packaging around it. Unless your provider offers packaging services under a separate agreement, PPWR sits entirely outside the Responsible Person mandate.

Do I need an authorised representative in every EU country I sell to?

Not necessarily. Article 45(3) of Regulation (EU) 2025/40 makes the appointment mandatory where a producer established in one Member State supplies another. For producers established outside the EU, it lets each Member State decide, as Recital 123 confirms. Germany requires it. Other markets must be checked individually. Where an appointment is needed, it is always country-specific, never EU-wide.

Does PPWR cover my product packaging or only shipping boxes?

Both. PPWR covers all packaging placed on the EU market. For a cosmetic sold online that means the bottle or jar, the folding carton, any leaflet wrap, the outer shipping box, void fill and adhesive tape. Volume reporting under extended producer responsibility is made by material type across all of those components.

We sell through an EU distributor. Are we still liable?

For extended producer responsibility, generally not. Where an EU distributor or importer first places the packaged product on a national market, that entity is the producer and carries registration and fees. You may still be the PPWR manufacturer, because your name is on the packaging, which brings design conformity, technical documentation and Declaration of Conformity duties.