A notification to Verpact is not administratively burdensome: filling in your account, linking your trade register and VAT details, and specifying the packaging categories is in most cases a matter of one session at the screen. What takes longer is everything that must happen beforehand: finding out which packaging you actually need to report, which weight class they fall into, and whether you do this yourself or via a representative.
The exact processing time for a notification itself is stated on the Verpact website; it can change and should be checked there, not repeated here as a fixed figure. What is certain: most of the delay is not with Verpact, but with the company that must provide the data.
What determines the processing time in practice
The first factor is whether you already know which packaging types count. A webshop that only packages its own products has a simpler list than an importer running multiple product lines, each with its own box, film and filling material. Anyone who still needs to make this inventory loses most of their time on that — not on filling in the form itself.
The second factor is whether the weights and materials are already recorded somewhere. Verpact asks for packaging weight per material type. Companies that already track this in a packaging file are faster than companies that need to find this out for the first time from their packaging supplier.
The third factor is the choice between registering yourself and engaging a representative. Registering yourself is faster if the data is complete, but gets stuck as soon as there is doubt about the correct category. A representative requires preparation time to arrange the mandate, but often prevents a second correction round afterwards.
Where registrations get stuck in practice
The most common delay occurs when a company only discovers at the entry form that it distinguishes between different types of packaging: the packaging of the product itself and the box or envelope in which it is sent to the customer. These two do not automatically count in the same way, and anyone who has not made this distinction beforehand must stop the registration halfway through to sort this out.
A second stumbling block is confusion about the role: is your company the party that must register, or does that obligation lie with a supplier or fulfilment partner further down the chain? That is not a matter of filling in forms faster, but of first establishing who is the responsible party in your situation. in a few questions see which role applies to your situation gives an initial indication of this before you start filling in.
A third delay occurs with companies that do not only sell in the Netherlands. A registration with Verpact only addresses the Dutch obligation; other EU countries have their own registers, their own portals and their own registration deadlines. If you only find this out afterwards, you have to go through the entire process again per country.
What you can arrange in advance to save time
The biggest time saving is not in the form, but in the preparation: an overview of all packaging types, their weight and material, and a clear line as to who in the chain is responsible. A packaging file that already contains this makes the registration with Verpact — and with any subsequent country — a matter of entering data rather than finding it out.
It is also good to know in advance whether your company falls under an exemption, for example as a small enterprise, and whether that exemption still applies now that thresholds have been adjusted or abolished. Anyone who registers while an exemption was actually applicable has wasted unnecessary time on a process that was not needed. read the background per subject provides a complete overview of it, worked out per situation.
Registration is not the endpoint
An enrolment with Verpact is a starting point, not a completed file. After registration comes the annual reporting of weights and materials, and that requires the same data you should have already collected at enrolment — now updated annually. Companies that correctly record what they have supplied the first time save themselves the same investigation work at every subsequent annual report.
For the question of what an enrolment with Verpact costs exactly, and how that compares to support per country, offers the overview of costs and subscription forms a concrete picture. If you prefer to work through a few questions yourself first before time is invested, you can do that free of charge and without obligation via view the guided registration per country.
Do you have half an hour and want to know where your company stands exactly? The free quick scan provides an initial indication in a few questions, and the knowledge base works out the details by topic further.