April 2023

Defra Update on EPR legislation

Defra have released a recording of a webinar covering EPR legislation in which they changed their position in regard to logistical labels carrying a brand name added by packer/fillers counting as the packaging being branded. Naturally, this will have relevance to many members and contradicts what has previoulsy been relayed to you on the webinar session last week so we wanted to flag this in case you were not aware of the change in position.

Essentially, Defra had previously indicated that due to the wording of the EPR legislation, brand owners would unintentionally be obligated where a logistical label bearing their brand name was added to transit packaging by packer/fillers. This would have meant that the whole packaging was classified as ‘branded’ and so the brand owner’s responsibility rather than the packer/filler, as had been Defra’s original intention.

Defra have recently announced that this position had changed. They now believe that there is no issue with the wording of the legislation and so responsibility for transit packaging, even where a logistical label with a brand name has been added, sits with the packer/filler for packaging placed on the market in 2023, with no need for the legislation to be amended.