What must a PPWR compliance declaration contain?

The declaration of conformity follows a fixed template from Annex VIII

The declaration of conformity is a document in which the party responsible for the packaging declares that the packaging complies with the requirements of the packaging regulation. The form is not left to discretion: Annex VIII of Regulation (EU) 2025/40 provides the template to which the declaration must conform. The core of that template always contains the same type of information: which packaging it concerns (so that it is identifiable), who is responsible for it — with name and postal address — and a declaration that this party bears full responsibility for conformity. The declaration is not separate from the rest of the file: it refers to the technical documentation that forms the substantiation, and that documentation is retained for five years.

The declaration belongs to the packaging, not to a shipment or an order. Whoever places a particular packaging type on the market draws up one declaration of conformity for it that applies as long as that packaging remains unchanged; if the composition or construction changes, a new or revised declaration is generally required. For those who carry multiple packaging variants — different materials, different volumes — this means in practice that each variant requires its own declaration and its own underlying file, not one document covering everything.

Where this derives from: Annex VIII and the retention obligation

The template for the EU declaration of conformity is set out in Annex VIII of Regulation (EU) 2025/40. That annex determines which elements the declaration contains and how it is structured. Linked to this is the requirement that the technical documentation substantiating the declaration is retained for five years — this too derives from the same annex. For the precise layout and wording of the template itself, the text of Annex VIII is the source to consult.