Nobody in Brussels will send you a fine. PPWR penalties are national: every EU country writes its own, and by 12 February 2027 every country must have them in place. On top of that, national EPR laws already carry fines today.
The penalty you should worry about first isn’t a fine. It’s being switched off.
What can actually happen?
| What | Who does it | When |
|---|---|---|
| A letter asking you to fix something | The market surveillance authority | Usually first |
| A fine | The national authority | Already today under national EPR law |
| Your listings switched off | The marketplace | Already today, registers are public |
| A ban on selling the packaging | The national authority | While you are unregistered |
| Withdrawal or recall | The national authority | Only if the problem isn’t fixed |
Note: Amounts, procedures and who enforces them are set country by country.
Enforcement starts with a letter, not a ban
For the packaging rules themselves, authorities have to ask you to fix the problem before they can order a withdrawal or a recall. That is the order of events, and it is why a missing document is not an emergency.
Registration is different. If you sell into a country without being registered there, you are not in a grace period. You are selling packaging you are not allowed to sell.
How big are the fines?
It depends entirely on the country. Germany is the clearest example and the strictest market. Its implementing law, the VerpackDG, allows fines up to 200,000 euros per breach, and an unregistered producer faces a distribution ban that reaches downstream distributors too. The German register is public, so competitors and marketplaces can check you in seconds.
Every other country sets its own numbers. What they share is the trigger: selling without being registered, or reporting less packaging than you actually shipped.
What is checked
- Are you in the register of every country you sell to?
- Does your reported tonnage match what you actually shipped, by material?
- Do you have a local representative where you sell but aren’t based?
- Can you produce the paperwork for your own and imported packaging?
All four come back to the same thing: records. If you can show what went where, by material, the rest is filling in forms. Here’s the full list of what applies now.
What if you’re late?
Register now and report what you have shipped. Registering late doesn’t erase the packaging you already put on a market, so expect to report and pay for it. That is still the cheap version of this problem.
Not sure which countries you’re responsible in? Take the 2-minute quiz to find out your own responsibilities.
Where does GetPPWR come in?
GetPPWR turns your Shopify orders into the records and reports these checks ask for. You describe your packaging once with automations, it’s added to every order, and each country gets its report in the format it wants, including for orders you’ve already shipped. That covers all 27 EU countries you ship to plus your home country’s EPR report, and our friends at Lizenzero can file them for you. Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial.
Sources: Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Article 68 on penalties; Germany’s VerpackDG and the Central Agency Packaging Register.
Quick answers about PPWR fines
Does the EU fine me?
No. Penalties are national. Every EU country must have its PPWR penalties in place by 12 February 2027.
Can I be fined today?
Yes. National EPR laws already have their own fines, for example for selling without being registered.
Can a marketplace block me?
Yes. Registers are public, and marketplaces check them. Missing registration is one of the fastest ways to lose listings.
What happens in February 2027?
Nothing new applies to you. The deadline is for the countries: their penalties for breaking PPWR must be in place by then.
I registered late. Am I in trouble?
Report what you have already shipped and pay for it. Authorities care about the gap being closed, and closing it yourself is cheaper than being found.
