Producer responsibility for packaging

Yes it does. Producer responsibility applies also to B2B packers if their turnover is at least one million euros. Producer responsibility is a legal obligation for businesses. It applies to companies that pack products in Finland or import packed products for the Finnish market or sell their products to Finland through distance sales. The company is responsible for their packaging materials even if they have outsourced packing or logistics services to another company. 

Yes, distance sales falls within producer responsibility. As an example, both Finnish and foreign online stores must join the Finnish producer responsibility system if they deliver products to the Finnish market.

Please read more: Producer responsibility

It is the company that owns the product being packed.

For a packaging manufacturer packaging refers to the products that are to be packed. If its products are packed in any form of packaging or packaging material, a packaging manufacturer has producer responsibility for such packaging.

Yes. Producer responsibility applies to all packaging and packaging material used to preserve, protect, handle, transport and display products.

Producer responsibility for packaging concerns:

1. A Finnish packer* or a foreign company’s Finnish branch**, which packs products for the Finnish market
2. A Finnish importer* or a foreign company’s Finnish branch**, which operates as an importer of packed products to the Finnish market
3. A foreign operator, established in another country than Finland and sells packed products directly to users in Finland through distance sales

AND

the company has a total turnover of at least 1 M€.

*the company has a Finnish business ID and is domiciled in Finland

**the company has a permanent establishment in Finland and is registered as a branch in the Trade Register maintained by the National Board of Patents and Registration

Producer responsibility means the obligation placed on a producer to organise reuse, recycling and other waste management of the waste arising from products and to meet the costs incurred in these activities. In the Waste Act producer responsibility applies to companies that place tyres for motorised vehicles, cars, electrical and electronic devices, batteries and accumulators, wastepaper and packaging on the market in Finland regardless of their sales practices.