If you supply packaged products to customers in multiple EU countries, you will not have one annual declaration to deal with, but as many declarations as there are countries where you are subject to the registration obligation. The obligation to report annually how much packaging you have placed on the market exists in almost every EU country, but the implementation varies: the register where you submit, the deadline, the breakdown of material types and the data requested are not the same.
What is common everywhere is the basic principle: you state how many kilos of which packaging material you supplied in the previous year, and that declaration forms the basis for the contribution you pay to the national system. The way this is recorded varies from country to country because each country has transposed the European rules into its own legislation and its own register.
Different registers, different screens
In Germany, the declaration goes through LUCID, in the Netherlands through Verpact, and other countries have their own platform with their own name and their own login procedure. This means you do not enter data once and have it automatically appear elsewhere. Each register requests its own input, often in its own language, and sometimes with its own breakdown of material categories that is structured slightly differently from what you are used to in another country.
Different deadlines within the same year
The date by which the annual declaration must be submitted also varies. One country works with a fixed date early in the year, another country allows more flexibility or requires interim reports alongside the annual declaration. For a company supplying in three or four countries, this means in practice that there are multiple moments throughout the year when a declaration must be submitted, not one shared moment.
Different levels of detail
Some countries only request a total per material type, while others want a further breakdown, for example by packaging function or by the weight of individual product groups. If you use the same underlying data but do not adapt it to what a specific country requests, you risk submitting a declaration that does not match what the register expects.
What is the same everywhere
The underlying logic comes from the same European framework everywhere, and the packaging material categories distinguished are close to each other. This makes it tempting to think that one overview of your packaging data is a sufficient basis for all countries at once. The basic data can indeed be shared, but the translation into the format of each individual register remains a per-country task. A packaging file that you build for your own administration is a good starting point for this; in the knowledge base, you will find for each topic how that file is structured and which data belongs in it.
Why this is often overlooked
Companies already familiar with the declaration at Verpact in the Netherlands sometimes assume that a similar cycle abroad also works in a similar way. The name of the register, the language of the form and the time of year are just different enough to cause a declaration to be missed or submitted late. This is not a matter of unwillingness, but of a registration obligation that runs on a slightly different schedule in each country.
How to clarify this for your situation
Whether the registration obligation applies to you in a specific country, and which register and deadline go with it, differs by packaging type and by country where you supply. In a few questions you see where you stand without requiring an account; the role finder also shows when an obligation does not apply to you. For those supplying in multiple countries and wanting to keep track of which report is due when, there is the annual reporting calendar that tracks the deadlines per country; more about this can be found on the page with system costs.
If you have questions about how registers, deadlines or classifications differ per country, you will find answers to frequently asked questions on the frequently asked questions page. If you are unsure about your own situation in a specific country, we cite the applicable guidelines and refer you to the competent authority in that country; we do not provide legal advice.
If you want to know within half an hour in which countries you must submit an annual report and when, take the free quick scan or browse through the topics in the knowledge base.