What must be on your product packaging in 2026?

What must be on your product packaging in 2026?

In 2026, what must appear on your product packaging changed. Three layers need to be correct: your company details, your product information and, if you use them, your environmental claims. The base is set by the GPSR (Regulation EU 2023/988), which has applied to every consumer product in the EU since 13 December 2024. On top of that came the PPWR on 12 August 2026, and on 27 September 2026 the final layer of this year follows: the rules for environmental claims.

In practice that means: your name or brand name, a postal address and an electronic address, a product identification, and for products from outside the EU an EU-based responsible person. Then the category requirements follow, such as ingredients for food or fibre composition for textiles.

Two of the three deadlines are now behind us. That does not make this article less urgent, but it does change the question: not what you need to prepare, but whether it is correct. And from here on, enforcement counts, not just legislation. This guide walks through every mandatory layer, per category, with the exact dates and with what is not yet required. At the bottom there is a checklist you can run through directly.

Which details must always be present, regardless of your product?

The GPSR (Regulation EU 2023/988) is the floor for every non-food consumer product, whatever you sell. Four elements are mandatory. One: the name, registered trade name or brand of the manufacturer. Two: one postal address and one electronic address (an email address or website contact point). Three: a type, batch or serial number that identifies this specific product. Four: for products made outside the EU, the name and address of an EU-based responsible person.

Placement follows a fixed hierarchy. The information belongs on the product itself. If that is not possible due to the nature or size, it may go on the packaging. If that is not possible either, in an accompanying document. For e-commerce these details must also appear in your online offer: manufacturer details, a product image and any warnings, as the GPSR (EUR-Lex) prescribes. A QR code or URL may supplement the physical information, but not replace it.

The biggest trap sits with private label and dropshipping. If you import products from a country outside the EU, you are often the party that must act as responsible person, or you have to appoint one. Many webshops do not know this and sell products that carry only a foreign manufacturer. Since December 2024 that is no longer enough. Check per supplier who the EU responsible person is, record it in writing, and make sure the name and address end up both on the packaging and in your listing.

What must be on the packaging per product category?

On top of the GPSR base, each product category imposes its own mandatory information. If you sell food, cosmetics, textiles or electronics, specific regulations apply that have been in force for years, separate from packaging law. The table below summarises the most important ones.

The CE marking is not optional. For toys, electronics, personal protective equipment and a range of other categories it is mandatory, and it must be backed by a conformity assessment. If you sell something that falls under one of these categories, always check first which regulation leads. The GPSR adds to the category requirements, it does not replace them.

What exactly changes in 2026?

In 2026 two new layers stack on the existing base. The PPWR (Regulation EU 2025/40) takes effect on 12 August 2026 and concerns the packaging itself. The Empowering Consumers Directive (EU 2024/825) becomes enforceable in the Netherlands on 27 September 2026 and concerns the claims you make. The table below lists the relevant dates, including what only comes later.

The biggest misconception was that all PPWR requirements would start on 12 August 2026. They did not, and they still have not. The visible material pictogram and the strict recyclability grades come later, in 2028 and 2030. Pulling these dates apart lets you plan the right investment at the right time. A deeper overview is in our guide PPWR 2026: what changes for your e-commerce packaging.

Which environmental claims may still go on your packaging from 27 September 2026?

From 27 September 2026 an environmental claim may only stay on your packaging if you can substantiate it up front. The Empowering Consumers Directive (EUR-Lex) bans vague terms without proof. Words like eco-friendly, green, sustainable or climate neutral may no longer stand alone on the packaging without verified substantiation. The Authority for Consumers and Markets enforces, and can fine heavily per breach: the maximum rises with your annual turnover and breaches can be stacked separately. The exact amounts and the six banned claim types are in Green Claims Directive 2026.

What is allowed is a specific, dated claim. Not climate neutral, but packaging whose share of recycled cardboard you state and can prove. Not sustainable, but a box that demonstrably uses less material than your previous one, with the measurement attached. If you have too little space on the packaging to show the full substantiation, the directive accepts a QR code that leads directly to a substantiation page. Important: there is no transition period for existing stock. Packaging carrying unproven claims that is on the market on 27 September 2026 is in breach at that moment. The full breakdown with six banned claim types is in Green Claims Directive 2026: 6 banned brand claims.

What has the PPWR required since 12 August 2026, and what not yet?

On 12 August 2026 three things become hard under the PPWR (EUR-Lex). One: the PFAS ban for packaging in direct contact with food (Article 5), with measurable thresholds that must be tested by an accredited lab. Two: a declaration of conformity per packaging type (Article 39), recording the material composition. Three: the minimisation principle (Article 10), requiring that packaging is no larger than needed for function and protection.

What has also not been required since 12 August 2026 is just as important to know. The visible material pictogram only follows in 2028. The recyclability grades, the recycled-content percentages and the cap on empty space in a shipping box apply from 1 January 2030. A shipping box you order today you will still use in 2030, so you make the design choice now, but you do not print the mandatory labels on it yet. In the Netherlands a registration and reporting duty applies via Verpact for producers above the statutory threshold for packaging material. The concrete actions per deadline are in our PPWR checklist: 12 points for 12 August and, broken down per packaging type, in PPWR per packaging type.

Who enforces this now the deadline has passed?

The PPWR has applied since 12 August 2026, but enforcement does not move in step with the law. That gap determines where your risk actually sits.

In the Netherlands the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate supervises packaging. Its intervention strategy for packaging lists informing, warning, an order subject to a penalty payment, a formal report, and withdrawing products from the market. What it does not contain is a worked-out PPWR sanction package with fine amounts. Anyone quoting you a fine today for non-compliant packaging is selling you something. The real risk is not a fine, but a product that has to come off the market. We covered that separately in PPWR enforcement: bol does not check, the law still applies.

Where enforcement is hard is on the other layer: the product information in your listing. bol has been checking legally required product information in phases since 1 April 2026 and takes non-compliant items offline. Not down in the rankings, but out of sale. The round with the 2 September 2026 deadline covers 364 product types across 22 categories; the cumulative list now stands at more than four thousand product types.

Two mistakes cost the most listings, and both originate in a bulk import:

• The manufacturer's electronic address. A general website does not qualify. It must be an email address or a direct link to the contact form.
• The manufacturer's address. Street and house number, postcode, town and country are all required. If one element is missing, the entire address is rejected.

That is the same GPSR information that belongs on your packaging above. The difference is that a platform actively checks it and a regulator, for now, does not.

What gets added to your product page on 27 September?

The Empowering Consumers Directive touches more than your claims. It also amends Article 6(1) of the Consumer Rights Directive, the article covering distance selling, and with it places a series of new information duties on your product page and in your checkout. The directive names 27 September 2026 as the date from which member states must apply the measures.

Source: Directive (EU) 2024/825, EUR-Lex.

Technically this is metafield work on Shopify plus a change to the product page section. It mainly affects electronics, white goods, tools and anything with a digital element; for fashion and food the impact is smaller, but the guarantee reminder always applies. One warning: the harmonised label and the standard notice from Article 22a are being set at EU level. Do not design those ahead of time.

What should you do now? The 2026 checklist

Run through this checklist for every product you sell. This is the minimum set that must be in order by the end of 2026. The first eight points should already have been in place on 12 August:

• Manufacturer name or brand name on product or packaging
• One postal address and one email address as contact point
• Type, batch or serial number for product identification
• EU responsible person with name and address for products from outside the EU
• The same manufacturer and contact details in your online listing
• CE marking where the category requires it, with substantiation
• Category-specific information: ingredients, allergens, INCI, fibre composition or WEEE symbol
• Net content or nominal quantity where applicable
• Environmental claims substantiated or removed before 27 September 2026
• PFAS-free for food-contact packaging, mandatory since 12 August 2026
• Declaration of conformity per packaging type arranged, mandatory since 12 August 2026
• Verpact registration if you are above the statutory threshold for packaging material
• Manufacturer address complete in your listing: street and house number, postcode, town, country
• Electronic address in your listing is an email address or direct contact link, not a homepage
• The seven new information fields on your product page scheduled for 27 September

A tip from practice: treat your packaging as one document, not as loose stickers. Building the mandatory information into the design from the start prevents a last-minute rescue with adhesive labels. That is exactly where compliance and brand meet.

How Oase Creative combines compliant and on-brand packaging

Packaging is the first physical touchpoint with your brand, and at the same time the document a regulator can hold you to. Those two do not have to clash. In six years of e-commerce branding we have designed packaging that carries the mandatory information without the design suffering. The legal details get a fixed, legible place, the brand keeps control over the rest.

The mistake we see most often is that compliance gets planned in at the end, when the design is already finished. Then everything has to be squeezed in and it costs the look. The other way around works better: start with the mandatory information as a frame, design around it. If you want help with packaging that is correct in 2026 and strengthens your brand, take a look at our packaging service or get in touch. We are happy to think along about what your category specifically needs.