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Packaging Rules CheckEU packaging rules for small sellers

Question

What is a packaging compliance scheme?

Reviewed 2026-08-21

Short answer

A company you pay to take on your packaging recycling duties. The UK says compliance scheme; the EU says producer responsibility organisation, or PRO. Same job.

What a scheme does for you

  • You join, report how much packaging you send out, and pay a fee based on weight and material.
  • The scheme registers or reports for you and pays towards collecting and recycling the packaging.
  • You stay responsible for the figures being right, even though the scheme files them.

In the UK

  • The word used is compliance scheme. Some guides call it packaging licensing — same thing again.
  • Under UK pEPR you can deal with the regulator yourself on GOV.UK, or pay a compliance scheme to register and report for you.
  • PackUK, hosted by Defra, runs the UK scheme itself. It is the administrator, not a compliance scheme you can join.

In the EU

  • The same thing is called a producer responsibility organisation, or PRO.
  • Examples: Repak in Ireland, Citeo in France, CONAI in Italy, EKO-KOM in Czechia.
  • Germany splits it in two: you register yourself in LUCID, then pay a PRO such as Der Grüne Punkt separately.

What a scheme does not do

  • Cover more than one country. You need one in each country you sell to, and there is no EU-wide scheme.
  • Replace an authorised representative. Where one is needed, that is a separate appointment, though many providers offer both.

Sources

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