Without a declaration of conformity for your packaging, you may encounter practical problems: a marketplace blocking your listing, a business buyer suspending the order, or a supervisory authority requesting substantiation. The regulation itself does not attach a fixed amount or fixed sanction to the absence of this declaration — that is filled in by national enforcement in the country where you place the packaging on the market. What exactly happens therefore varies by situation and by country.
The declaration of conformity is the document in which you demonstrate that your packaging complies with the requirements in Annex VIII of the regulation: including on material use, recyclability and the absence of certain substances. If this document is missing, it is not the packaging itself that fails to meet the requirements — but the evidence that you can demonstrate this. And that evidence is precisely what buyers, marketplaces and supervisory authorities ask for as soon as doubt arises.
Who can ask for it
In practice, there are three parties that can request a declaration of conformity. Marketplaces are increasingly checking beforehand or afterwards whether sellers have the correct documentation, and can pause a listing if there is doubt until it is provided. Business buyers who themselves resell further request the declaration to complete their own file. And a national supervisory authority can request substantiation during an inspection, for example following a complaint or a sample check.
None of these parties is obliged to warn you first before something goes wrong. A marketplace can take a listing offline without prior consultation, and a buyer can simply not place an order. This is usually the first moment when the lack of documentation becomes apparent — not a fine, but a halted shipment.
What then concretely happens
A supervisory authority's response to a missing declaration of conformity depends on the country, the type of packaging and the context of the inspection. Some supervisory authorities give a deadline to supplement the file, others may take further steps. Because the regulation fills this in through national implementing legislation that is still under development, a statement about the likelihood of a sanction or its amount cannot be given at this time. For the exact state of affairs in a country, we refer to the guidelines of the competent supervisory authority or to a legal adviser who is familiar with the local implementation.
What is certain: the absence of the declaration affects not only the packaging being inspected. If the underlying technical file is also not in order, a broader picture emerges that is more likely to lead to questions in a subsequent inspection. Conversely, a complete file with declaration, technical substantiation and name and address details can usually be presented within a few steps, and that saves time in every subsequent inspection.
How you prevent this
The declaration of conformity does not stand alone. It belongs to a packaging file in which the technical substantiation and materials used are also recorded. Those who already have that file can often draw up the declaration based on existing data; those who still need to start should do so by packaging type, because the requirements differ by material and application.
Whether you need this declaration, and for which packaging types exactly, depends on your role as a manufacturer, importer or distributor and on the country in which you supply. in a few questions see if this applies to your packaging provides a first indication there, without requiring an account. To understand the underlying requirements for each document type, it is advisable to first read what exactly must be included in such a file; that is explored by topic in the knowledge base.
Once it is clear which documents you need, the next step is often practical: assembling the file and, where applicable, arranging registration in the correct country. how that registration works is explained on the site, including what is needed for it. If you are still uncertain whether your situation falls under this, the most frequently asked questions about documentation and obligations are worth reading through carefully once more.
A missing EU declaration of conformity is usually not a matter of unwillingness, but of time: the file is not yet ready, or the declaration has never been documented separately. With the free quick-scan you can see within a few minutes whether this applies to your packaging, and if so, where you can best start.