The packaging Declaration of Conformity

Since 12 August 2026, packaging placed on the EU market needs an EU Declaration of Conformity behind it, supported by technical documentation. It was one of the obligations that started on the application date itself, with no grace period, alongside the substance restrictions of Article 5.

Most of the documents circulating under that name are not one. They are supplier letters — a page of assurances on headed paper, unsigned or signed by somebody unidentified, stating that the goods “comply with all relevant legislation”. That sentence is worth nothing, and the party carrying the obligation is rarely the one who wrote it.

Who draws it up

The manufacturer. Not the importer, not the distributor, and not whoever happens to sell it to you.

The word does not mean what it looks like. Under Article 3, the manufacturer is whoever designs or manufactures the packaging — or has it designed or manufactured and markets it under their own name or trademark. A brand owner who has sacks made by a converter is the manufacturer of that packaging. The converter is not. There is one manufacturer per packaging item for the whole EU market, and Article 15 puts the technical documentation, the conformity assessment and the declaration on that one party.

Everyone else in the chain has a lighter, different job:

Role	Obligation
Manufacturer (Art. 15)	Draws up the technical documentation, runs the conformity assessment, issues and signs the declaration
Importer (Art. 18)	Verifies the assessment was done and the declaration exists, keeps a copy, produces the technical documentation on request
Distributor (Art. 19)	Checks the declaration and the labelling exist before making the packaging available

Then there is the trapdoor. Article 21: an importer or distributor who places packaging on the market under their own name or trademark, or modifies packaging in a way that affects its conformity, is treated as the manufacturer, with the full Article 15 obligations. Private label is the ordinary case. If your brand is on the sack, the declaration is yours to issue, and your supplier’s paperwork does not discharge it.

One more distinction worth holding on to, because supplier questionnaires routinely confuse the two: PPWR manufacturer is not the same role as EPR producer. The first decides who signs the declaration. The second decides who registers and pays fees in each member state, and it follows national implementation. The Commission’s June 2026 guidance is explicit that roles are assigned per packaging and per market, not per company — one business can hold different roles for different lines in different countries.

What it must contain

A declaration of conformity follows the model set out in the Regulation, and the same pattern as every other EU product declaration. If a document is missing any of these, it is not one:

Element	What it means in practice
A unique identifier for the declaration	A number, so a specific version can be cited
Name and address of the manufacturer	A legal entity with an address, not a brand. An importer adds its own details separately under Article 18; it does not replace the manufacturer’s here
A statement that it is issued under the sole responsibility of that party	The sentence that makes it a legal act
Identification of the packaging	Enough to trace it: description, product code, dimensions, material, and usually a photograph
The Union legislation it conforms to	Regulation (EU) 2025/40 — in practice conformity with Articles 5 to 12 — and any other instrument that applies
References to the standards or specifications used	Harmonised standards where they exist. For packaging in 2026 they largely do not, so expect a reference to another technical specification or an internal method
Additional information	Test reports, and notified body details where they apply — they do not apply to the internal production control route that most packaging follows
Place and date of issue	A declaration without a date cannot be checked against a specification change
Name, function and signature	A named person who holds a position, not “Sales Department”

The technical documentation behind it

The declaration is the summary. The technical documentation is what makes it true, and it stays with whoever drew up the declaration — it is produced on request from a market surveillance authority, not shipped with every order.

It normally covers:

• a general description of the packaging and what it is for,
• design and manufacturing drawings, and the composition,
• the requirements the packaging is assessed against, and how,
• test reports and measurements,
• for plastic packaging, the evidence of recycled content — which from 2030 becomes the part people wish they had started earlier.

You are entitled to ask whether it exists. You are not normally entitled to a copy of all of it, because it contains formulation detail that is genuinely commercially sensitive.

How to tell a real one

Four checks, in about ninety seconds:

1. Is there a named signatory with a function? “J. Kowalski, Quality Manager” is a declaration. “Sales Department” is a letter.
2. Does it identify the specific packaging? A declaration covering “all our polyethylene products” covers nothing you can rely on.
3. Does it cite the legislation by number? “Complies with EU regulations” is not a citation. “Regulation (EU) 2025/40” is.
4. Is it dated, and does the date come after the specification you were quoted? A declaration issued before a material change describes a different product.

What to do with it

Keep it with the purchase record for the batch, not in a general file. If a market surveillance authority asks, the question is about a specific consignment and the answer has to be traceable to it.

If you bring packaging in from outside the EU you are the importer, and you have to be able to produce the declaration and, on request, the technical documentation. That means an arrangement with the manufacturer to obtain it, agreed before the order rather than after the question. Buying inside the single market, the next section applies instead.

Where this leaves you, buying from Poland

Nobody is an importer. A Polish plant selling to a German, Dutch or Swedish buyer is an intra-EU movement — the goods are already on the single market, and Article 18 never engages. That removes an administrative burden people often assume is unavoidable, and it is a real difference from sourcing the same sacks out of Asia.

So the allocation is short:

• The plant is the manufacturer and issues the declaration under its own name, per packaging type, per specification.
• You are the distributor if you resell it as the plant’s product, and your job is to check the declaration exists and hold a copy.
• You are the manufacturer the moment it carries your brand — Article 21, and the declaration becomes yours to issue.

What we do about it

We do not issue the declaration and we could not: we are an agent, we take no title to the goods and we place nothing on the market. The plant does both.

What we do is make sure the document exists before you commit, and that it says what your specification says. Concretely: we ask for it at quotation stage rather than at dispatch, we check it names the plant as a legal entity with a signatory who has a function, we check the packaging identification matches the product code you are actually buying, and we check the issue date is later than the last specification change. Where a plant has been issuing supplier letters instead of declarations, we say so before you order rather than after.

If your line is private label, we say that too, plainly: the obligation is yours, and what you need from the plant is the technical documentation to support the declaration you will sign — not a declaration in the plant’s name that does not cover your brand.

What this means for what you buy

The declaration is issued by the manufacturer and belongs to the packaging type, not to the order — so it is settled when the specification is, not when the load ships. Whichever of stretch film, bin liners or catering film you are specifying, ask for it at quotation stage; we make sure it arrives with the goods and says what the specification says.