PPWR Makes the Brand Owner the Manufacturer. Your Suppliers Hold the Evidence.

Most brand owners assume the converter is the manufacturer. The European Commission said otherwise, in writing, on 10 June 2026.

We read Commission Notice C/2026/3084, the official guidance for Regulation (EU) 2025/40, against the phase in dates for Articles 5 to 12. Two findings drive everything below. The brand owner is usually the manufacturer. And the requirement carrying evidence weight on 12 August 2026 is substance restrictions, not recyclability.

Who is the manufacturer under PPWR?

Usually you, if your name is on the pack. The Commission guidance states that for sales and grouped packaging the manufacturer is normally the operator that applies the final processing steps and fills the packaging, which is often the brand owner.

The guidance is blunt about how many candidates exist: "there is always only one manufacturer in a supply chain" (European Commission, Commission Notice C/2026/3084, 10 June 2026). One company carries the Article 5 to 12 obligations EU wide. Your converter does not share that load.

A packaging strategist writing in the trade press reduces it to one test: "if your brand is on the packaging, you're likely the manufacturer." His worked example is a bottle produced by one company and branded by another, where the obligation follows the brand rather than the plant.

One carve out exists. Where the brand owner is a micro-enterprise, meaning fewer than 10 employees and turnover or balance sheet at or below 2 million euro, and the supplier sits in the same member state, the supplier becomes the manufacturer.

Selling in from outside the EU does not move the obligation either. The Commission states a branch has no separate legal personality and cannot qualify as an importer, so a company outside the EU holding only a branch must incorporate an EU subsidiary or appoint an authorized representative under Article 3(1)(19).

Manufacturer and producer are also different roles, and mixing them up is the most common mistake we see on scoping calls.

What is actually due on 12 August 2026?

A signed EU Declaration of Conformity per packaging type, backed by an Annex VII technical file. Article 39 of Regulation (EU) 2025/40 puts the drafting duty on the manufacturer, following the Article 38 conformity assessment under internal production control, Module A. No notified body signs off, and no CE mark goes on the packaging.

What that file must prove is narrower than most readiness checklists suggest. The Commission confirms manufacturers do not run the Article 38 and Annex VII conformity assessment for recyclability until the Article 6(4) delegated act enters into force, due by 1 January 2028, with 24 months to comply after that.

Article 6(1) still requires all packaging on the market to be recyclable, and the Commission reads that as applying from 12 August 2026. Until the delegated act lands you demonstrate it against the previous directive and standards such as EN 13430:2004. The A, B and C grades come later.

Do suppliers have to give you the data?

Yes, and the regulation says so directly. The Commission confirms the manufacturer drafts the declaration based on the information and documentation suppliers provide under Article 16(1).

Article 5(5) goes further on fluorine. Where total fluorine in food contact packaging exceeds 50 mg/kg, the upstream manufacturer, importer or downstream user must supply proof of the fluorine content on request, so you can draw up the Annex VII documentation. Cite both articles in your next supplier email.

The Commission recommends testing total fluorine first. Below 50 mg/kg a food contact sample can be treated as compliant, and on the evidence available to the Commission, samples passing that test also pass the 25 ppb and 250 ppb checks.

What does the Article 5 evidence look like?

Two numbers, both produced outside your building. First, the combined concentration of lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium in packaging or components "shall not exceed 100 mg/kg" (Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Article 5(4)). That applies to all packaging, not only food contact.

Second, from 12 August 2026 food contact packaging cannot be placed on the market at or above the Article 5(5) PFAS limits: 25 ppb for any individual PFAS by targeted analysis, 250 ppb for the sum, and 50 ppm including polymeric PFAS. The Commission confirms no transitional period for exhausting stock and no exception for recycled material, though stock already on the market before that date can stay.

Neither number sits in your ERP. Both sit with a converter, a masterbatch house, an ink supplier or a coating supplier, each holding one layer.

Why do supplier requests come back unusable?

Because the ask is undefined, not because the supplier is slow. Chasing harder does not fix an unclear question, and most PPWR advice stops at chasing harder.

Send a field list and the same supplier answers in one pass. Their declaration still does not finish the job. It feeds the technical file rather than replacing the assessment of the pack as it ships, closure fitted and seal made. One shampoo bottle can involve four suppliers, each answering only for their own part, and only you see the finished pack.

How does Packgine fit in?

Packgine holds the packaging record the technical file rests on. It does not run lab tests and it does not send supplier emails for you. It removes the reason those emails come back unusable.

The Packaging Specification Hub carries more than 150 spec templates across rigid, flexible, glass, metal and paper formats, with nomenclature aligned to GS1 and resin codes across the SPI 1 to 7 range. Component specs link into a bill of materials spanning primary, secondary, tertiary and transport packaging, which is the shape Annex VII asks for: a description of the packaging, drawings at component level, and material specifications per layer. Supplier certificates and COA documents attach to the component they belong to, and every change is versioned, timestamped and attributed.

For the 2030 wave, the Recyclability Assessment grades each item under Article 6 using RecyClass methodology and tracks recycled content under Article 7. Those grades cost money before they carry legal weight, because Article 6(8) requires extended producer responsibility fees under Article 45 to be modulated by recyclability performance. Packgine also produces a structured PPWR data export. The formal Declaration of Conformity document sits in beta today, and we would rather say that than imply otherwise.

What should you do this week?

Answer one question first. For your highest volume EU line, whose name is on the pack, and who ordered the design? If the answer is your company, you are the manufacturer and the declaration is yours to sign.

Then pull the bill of materials and check whether you can evidence the four metals limit for every component, inks and closures included, and the PFAS limits for every layer touching food. If either answer is no, that is not a compliance gap yet. It is a supplier request that has to leave today, because your converter may need to ask their own resin supplier first.

Sources

European Commission, Commission Notice C/2026/3084, Guidance document for Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Official Journal, 10 June 2026. Regulation (EU) 2025/40, full text, EUR-Lex, in force 11 February 2025, applying from 12 August 2026. European Commission, Packaging waste, environment.ec.europa.eu, updated June 2026. Felix Gass, Packaging Strategy Lab, in Packaging Europe, March 2026. Educational only, not legal advice. Confirm your obligations against the regulation text, the Commission guidance and your national authority.

About the author

Kevin Kai Wong, Managing Partner at gCurv Technologies. He works with consumer brands and importers on packaging compliance data, covering EU PPWR conformity evidence and US state EPR reporting.