- authorised representative
means any natural or legal person established in the Union that has received a written mandate from the manufacturer to act on that manufacturer’s behalf in relation to specified tasks with regard to the manufacturer’s obligations under this Regulation;
- authorised representative for the extended producer responsibility
means any natural or legal person established in the Member State where the producer makes packaging or packaged products available on the territory of the Member State for the first time, or where it unpacks packaged products without being an end user, other than the Member State or the third country where the producer is established, and that is appointed by the producer in accordance Article 8a(5), third subparagraph, of Directive 2008/98/EC to fulfil the obligations of that producer under Chapter VIII of this Regulation;
- biobased plastics
means plastics made from biological resources, such as biomass feedstock, organic waste or by-products, and irrespective of whether the plastics are biodegradable or non-biodegradable;
- closed loop system
means a re-use system in which reusable packaging is circulated by a system operator or a co-operating group of system participants without the change of the ownership of packaging;
- composite packaging
means a unit of packaging made of two or more different materials which are part of the weight of the main packaging material and cannot be separated manually and therefore form a single integral unit, unless one of the materials constitutes an insignificant part of the packaging unit and in any event no more than 5 % of the total mass of the packaging unit and excluding labels, varnishes, paints, inks, adhesives and lacquers;
- compostable packaging
means packaging that biodegrades in industrially controlled conditions or that is capable of undergoing biological decomposition in such conditions, including through anaerobic digestion, but not necessarily in a home-composting environment, combined, if necessary, with physical treatment, resulting ultimately in the conversion of the packaging into carbon dioxide or, in the absence of oxygen, methane, and mineral salts, biomass and water, and that does not hinder or jeopardise the separate collection and the composting and anaerobic digestion process;
- conformity assessment
means the process demonstrating whether the sustainability, safety, labelling and information requirements of this Regulation relating to packaging have been fulfilled;
- consumer
means any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside their trade, business or profession;
- contact-sensitive packaging
means packaging that is intended to be used for products falling within the scope of Regulations (EC) No 1831/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council, (EC) No 1935/2004, (EC) No 767/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, (EC) No 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, (EU) 2017/745, (EU) 2017/746, (EU) 2019/4 of the European Parliament and of the Council or (EU) 2019/6, or of Directives 2001/83/EC, 2002/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council or 2008/68/EC, or for products as defined in Articles 1 and 2 of Commission Decision (EU) 2023/1809;
- deposit
means a defined sum of money, not being part of the price of a packaged or filled product that is collected from the end user when purchasing such packaged or filled product, covered by a deposit and return system in a given Member State and redeemable when the end user or any other person returns the deposit bearing packaging to a collection point established for that purpose;
- deposit and return system
means a system in which a deposit is charged to the end user when purchasing a packaged or filled product covered by that system, and redeemed when the deposit bearing packaging is returned through one of the collection channels that are authorised for that purpose by the national authorities;
- design for recycling
means the design of packaging, including individual components of packaging, that ensures the recyclability of the packaging with established collection, sorting and recycling processes proven in an operational environment;
- distance contract
means distance contract as defined in Article 2(7) of Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council;
- distributor
means any natural or legal person in the supply chain, other than the manufacturer or importer, that makes packaging available on the market;
- e-commerce packaging
means transport packaging used to deliver products in the context of sale online or through other means of distance sales to the end user;
- economic operator
means the manufacturer, the supplier, the importer, the distributor, the authorised representative, the final distributor and the fulfilment service provider;
- end user
means any natural or legal person that resides or is established in the Union to whom a product has been made available either as a consumer or as a professional end user in the course of its industrial or professional activities, and that does not make that product further available on the market in the form supplied to it;
- final distributor
means the natural or legal person in the supply chain that delivers packaged products, including through re-use, or products that can be purchased through refill to the end user;
- governance guidelines
means the governance structure of a re-use system that defines the role of system participants, ownership and any envisaged transfer of ownership of packaging, as well as other relevant governance elements of the re-use system as defined in this Annex;
- grouped packaging
means packaging conceived so as to constitute a grouping of a certain number of sales units at the point of sale, irrespective of whether that grouping of sales units is sold as such to the end user or whether it serves as a means to facilitate the restocking of shelves at the point of sale or to create a stock-keeping or distribution unit, and which can be removed from the product without affecting its characteristics;
- harmonised standard
means a standard as defined in Article 2(1), point (c), of Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012;
- high-quality recycling
means any recycling process which produces recycled materials that are of equivalent quality to the original materials, based on preserved technical characteristics, and that are used as a substitute to primary raw materials for packaging or other applications where the quality of the recycled material is retained;
- home compostable packaging
means packaging that can biodegrade in non-controlled conditions that are not industrial-scale composting facilities and the composting process of which is performed by private individuals with the aim of producing compost for their own use;
- importer
means any natural or legal person established within the Union that places packaging from a third country on the market;
- innovative packaging
means a form of packaging that is manufactured using new materials, resulting in a significant improvement in the functions of the packaging, such as the containment, protection, handling, or delivery of products, and in overall demonstrable environmental benefits, with the exception of packaging that is the result of modification to existing packaging for the main purpose of improving the presentation of products and marketing;
- integrated component
means a packaging component, whether or not of the same material as, or distinct from, the main body of the packaging unit, that is integral to the packaging unit and its functioning, that does not need to be separated from the main body of the packaging unit in order to ensure the functionality of the packaging unit and that is typically discarded at the same time as the main body of the packaging unit, although not necessarily via the same disposal route;
- life-cycle
means the consecutive and interlinked stages of the life of packaging, consisting of raw material acquisition or generation from natural resources, pre-processing, manufacturing, storage, distribution, use, repair, re-use and end-of-life;
- lightweight plastic carrier bags
means plastic carrier bags with a wall thickness below 50 microns;
- making available on the market
means any supply of packaging, whether empty or with a product, for distribution, consumption or use on the Union market in the course of a commercial activity, whether in return for payment or free of charge;
- making available on the territory of the Member State
means any supply of packaging, whether empty or with a product, for distribution, consumption or use on the territory of the Member State in the course of a commercial activity, whether in return for payment or free of charge;
- manufacturer
means any natural or legal person that manufactures packaging or a packaged product;
- material recycling
means any recovery operation by which waste materials are reprocessed into materials or substances, whether for the original or other purposes, with the exception of biological treatment of waste, reprocessing of organic material, energy recovery and reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or for backfilling operations;
- online platform
means online platform as defined in Article 3, point (i), of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065;
- open loop system
means a re-use system in which reusable packaging circulates amongst an unspecified number of system participants, and the ownership of the packaging changes at one or more points in the re-use process;
- packaging
means an item, irrespective of the materials from which it is made, that is intended to be used by an economic operator for the containment, protection, handling, delivery or presentation of products to another economic operator or to an end user, and that can be differentiated by packaging format based on its function, material and design, including:
- packaging category
means a combination of material and specific packaging design which determines recyclability by reference to established state-of-the-art collection, sorting and recycling processes proven in an operational environment and which is relevant for the definition of the design for recycling criteria;
- packaging presenting a risk
means packaging that, by not complying with a requirement set out in or pursuant to this Regulation other than those requirements listed in Article 62(1), could adversely affect the environment, health or other public interests protected by that requirement;
- packaging presenting a serious risk
means packaging presenting a risk for which, based on an assessment, the degree of the relevant non-compliance or the associated harm is considered to require rapid intervention by the market surveillance authorities, including cases where the effects of the non-compliance are not immediate;
- packaging waste
means any packaging or packaging material that is waste, with the exception of production residues;
- packaging waste prevention
means measures that are taken before any packaging or packaging material has become packaging waste and that reduce the quantity of packaging waste, so that less or no packaging is required to contain, protect, handle, deliver or present products, including measures as regards the re-use of the packaging and measures to extend the life of the packaging before it becomes waste;
- packaging waste recycled at scale
means packaging waste which is collected separately, sorted and recycled in installed infrastructure, using established processes proven in an operational environment which ensure, at Union level, an annual quantity of recycled material under each packaging category listed in Table 2 of Annex II equal to or greater than 30 % for wood and 55 % for all other materials;
- PFAS
means any substance that contains at least one fully fluorinated methyl (CF3-) or methylene (-CF2-) carbon atom (without any H/Cl/Br/I attached to it), except substances that only contain the following structural elements: CF3-X or X-CF2-X′, where X = -OR or -NRR′ and X′ = methyl (-CH3), methylene (-CH2-), an aromatic group, a carbonyl group (-C(O)-), -OR′′, -SR′′ or –NR′′R′′′;
- placing on the market
means the first making available of packaging, whether empty or with a product, on the Union market;
- plastic
means a material consisting of a polymer within the meaning of Article 3, point (5), of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, to which additives or other substances may have been added, and which is capable of functioning as a main structural component of packaging, with the exception of natural polymers that have not been chemically modified;
- plastic carrier bags
means carrier bags, with or without a handle, made of plastic, which are supplied to consumers at the point of sale of products;
- post-consumer plastic waste
means waste that is plastic and that has been generated from plastic products that have been placed on the market or supplied for distribution, consumption or use in a third country in the course of a commercial activity, whether in return for payment or free of charge;
- primary production packaging
means an item designed and intended to be used as packaging for unprocessed products from primary production as defined in Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
- producer
means any manufacturer, importer or distributor to whom, irrespective of the selling technique used, including by means of distance contracts, one of the following applies:
- producer responsibility organisation
means a legal entity that financially or financially and operationally organises the fulfilment of extended producer responsibility obligations on behalf of several producers;
- public contracts
means public contracts as defined in Article 2, point (5), of Directive 2014/24/EU or as referred to in Directive 2014/25/EU, as applicable.
- re-use
means any operation by which reusable packaging is used again multiple times for the same purpose for which it was conceived;
- re-use system
means the organisational, technical or financial arrangements, together with incentives, that allow re-use either in a closed loop or open loop system, such as a deposit and return system that ensures that packaging is collected for re-use;
- reconditioning
means any operation listed in Part B of Annex VI necessary to restore reusable packaging to a functional state for the purpose of its re-use;
- recyclability
means the compatibility of packaging with the management and processing of waste by design, based on separate collection, sorting in separate streams, recycling at scale and the use of recycled materials to replace primary raw materials;
- refill
means an operation by which a container that fulfils the packaging function, and that is either owned by the end user or purchased by the end user at the point of sale of the final distributor is filled by the end user or by the final distributor with one or several products purchased by the end user from the final distributor;
- refill station
means a place where a final distributor offers to end users products that can be purchased through refill;
- rotation
means the cycle that reusable packaging accomplishes from the moment it is placed on the market together with the product it is intended to contain, protect, handle, deliver or present to the moment it is ready to be re-used within a re-use system with a view to it being supplied again to end users together with another product;
- sales area
means the area dedicated to the display of goods offered for sale, to the payment for such goods, and to the circulation and presence of customers, but does not include the areas which are not open to the public, such as storage areas, or other areas where products are not displayed, such as car parks;
- sales packaging
means packaging conceived so as to constitute a sales unit consisting of products and packaging to the end user at the point of sale;
- secondary raw materials
means materials that have undergone all necessary checking and sorting and been obtained through recycling processes and can substitute primary raw materials;
- separate component
means a packaging component, whether or not from the same material as the main body of the packaging unit, that is distinct from the main body of the packaging unit, that needs to be disassembled completely and permanently from the main body of the packaging unit and that is typically discarded prior to and separately from the main body of the packaging unit, including packaging components that can be separated from each other simply through mechanical stress during transportation or sorting;
- single-use packaging
means packaging which is not reusable packaging;
- single-use plastic beverage bottles
means beverage bottles listed in Part F of the Annex to Directive (EU) 2019/904;
- supplier
means any natural or legal person that supplies packaging or packaging material to a manufacturer;
- system operator
means any natural or legal person who is entrusted with a responsibility to establish or operate a deposit and return system in a Member State.
- system participant
shall mean any natural or legal person who participates in a re-use system and performs at least one of the following actions: collects the packaging either from end users or from other system participants, reconditions it, distributes it among system participants, transports it, fills it with products, packs it or offers it to end users;
- take-away packaging
means service packaging filled at attended points of sale with beverages or ready-prepared food that are packaged for transportation and immediate consumption at another location without the need for any further preparation and are typically consumed from the packaging;
- technical specification
means a document that prescribes technical requirements to be fulfilled by a product, process or service;
- thick plastic carrier bags
means plastic carrier bags with a wall thickness between 50 and 99 microns;
- transport packaging
means packaging conceived so as to facilitate the handling and transport of one or more sales units or a grouping of sales units, in order to prevent damage to the product from handling and transport, but which excludes road, rail, ship and air containers;
- trip
means the transfer of packaging, from filling or loading to emptying or unloading, as part of a rotation or on its own;
- unit of packaging
means a unit, including any integrated or separate components, which as a whole serves a packaging function, such as the containment, protection, handling, delivery, storage, transport or presentation of products, and includes independent units of grouped or transport packaging where they are discarded prior to the point of sale;
- very lightweight plastic carrier bags
means plastic carrier bags with a wall thickness below 15 microns;
- very thick plastic carrier bags
means plastic carrier bags with a wall thickness above 99 microns;
- waste
means waste as defined in Article 3, point (1), of Directive 2008/98/EC;
- waste receptacles
means receptacles used to store and collect waste, for example containers, bins and bags;