EU product compliance

Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste establishes directly applicable EU requirements for packaging design, conformity and documentation, alongside national EPR duties.

Packaging conformity determines whether packaging itself meets the applicable PPWR product requirements and whether the evidence needed to demonstrate that compliance is in place. It is a separate compliance layer from national packaging EPR registration, financing and reporting.

Technical documentation is the evidence file used to demonstrate conformity with the requirements of the applicable Union product legislation. Its required content, assessment method and retention period depend on the legal act, product and conformity procedure concerned.

An EU Declaration of Conformity is the manufacturer's formal statement, where required by the applicable Union legislation, that the product or packaging complies with the legal requirements covered by that declaration. It is supported by the applicable conformity assessment and technical documentation and is separate from EPR registration and reporting.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 creates an EU-wide framework for the sustainability, safety, labelling, conformity and information requirements of batteries, together with extended producer responsibility and waste-battery obligations. The applicable requirements depend on battery category, economic-operator role and implementation date.

From 18 February 2027, defined battery categories must have an electronic Battery Passport containing model-level and individual-battery information under Regulation (EU) 2023/1542. The Passport is accessed through the battery's QR code and uses controlled access rights for different categories of information.

Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 establishes the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) framework for setting sustainability, performance and information requirements for product groups placed on the EU market. The concrete obligations are introduced progressively through product-specific or horizontal measures rather than applying identically to every product from one common date.

A Digital Product Passport is a structured electronic product record connected to a persistent unique product identifier and accessed through a data carrier. Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 establishes the common EU DPP architecture, while the products, data requirements, access rights and application dates are determined by the applicable Union legislation or product-specific measure.