New PPWR rules: European bureaucracy is crushing small webshops

Since 12 August 2026, the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) has applied. The goal is good: less packaging waste, more recycling and requiring companies to contribute to the processing of their packaging.

I support that principle. But for small webshops selling in many EU countries, the implementation is simply unaffordable. They have to register in each country, submit declarations and comply with local rules.

Spending €7,000 for a €127 recycling contribution

Imagine a small webshop sending 10,000 parcels per year, spread across all 27 EU countries. The recycling contribution for the packaging material is estimated at only €127 per year.

On top of that, registrations and declarations are required in each country. Some countries may even require a local authorised representative. Based on the rates from Lizenzero, the costs for 27 countries can rise to approximately €6,862 per year.

And those are only the external compliance costs. A webshop must also keep track of deadlines, declarations and supporting documents: many additional hours of administration every year.

The system therefore costs almost €7,000 per year externally, while only €127 goes towards recycling. The remaining €6,862 is spent on administrative obligations.

The Netherlands Chamber of Commerce (KVK) confirms that the packaging rules also apply to small webshops and that EU countries implement them separately, with their own registrations and declarations. That is exactly what makes cross-border selling so expensive and complex for small businesses.

Recycling itself is not unaffordable. For small webshops, the system around it is.

This is already happening in practice

For small businesses, the consequences of the new rules are no longer a theoretical scenario. They are already visible.

In my own case, Amazon has indicated that it will stop my sales in Sweden because of the compliance requirements surrounding packaging responsibility. This effectively means I lose access to a European sales market. A Dutch webshop that wants to sell to European consumers can therefore be cut off from another EU country because of national administrative obligations.

I am not the only one. On Instagram, I now see hundreds of business owners saying that they are temporarily stopping or limiting shipping to certain EU countries. Some are excluding smaller markets completely, while others are waiting until it becomes clear how the rules will be implemented in practice and what the costs will be.

Ultimately, this also means less choice for consumers and a greater scale advantage for the largest platforms.

New rules give large companies an advantage

For large companies, such fixed costs are relatively small because they are spread across millions of orders. For a small webshop with only a few hundred orders in a country, the same costs can exceed what is earned there.

Amazon now offers paid EPR services. Through EPR Pay on Behalf, Amazon takes over obligations in return for service fees on top of the recycling contribution. This means EPR is not only an obligation for Amazon, but also a revenue model.

The result may be that small webshops no longer serve certain EU countries. Consumers are affected as well: less choice and less access to smaller European stores.

One European market needs one system

This could be simpler. Let companies pay according to the amount of packaging material they use, but organise the administration at European level.

With one European registration and one online portal, a webshop would only need to report once how much packaging material was sent to each country. The contributions could then be distributed among the member states.

There should also be simpler rules for small businesses. A company sending only a few hundred parcels per year to a country should not face the same administration as a multinational with millions of shipments.

PPWR in the media: contributions from Dave from GUNDERWEAR

RTL Nieuws covered the consequences of the PPWR for small webshops. I contributed input to the article ‘New packaging rules cause problems for small webshops’. RTL also refers readers to this blog for more background.

On Thursday 13 August 2026, I spoke with Thomas van Zijl on BNR Zakendoen on BNR Nieuwsradio about the consequences of the PPWR for small webshops. The interview can be listened to on Spotify from 46:00.

On Saturday 22 August 2026, De Telegraaf published the article ‘New packaging rules give entrepreneur Dave a bureaucratic nightmare’, for which I was interviewed about the consequences of the PPWR for small webshops. The article also appeared in the Saturday print edition that day. Please note: the online article is behind a paywall.

For media and journalists: would you like more background, a response or an interview about the consequences of the PPWR for small webshops? Please get in touch through the contact page.

Want this to change? Make your voice heard

This does not only affect business owners. If smaller stores stop shipping to certain EU countries, consumers have less choice. Both businesses and consumers can therefore take action.

Businesses: use the European Commission's Have Your Say portal to provide feedback on how EPR schemes operate in the EU. Your experiences can help make the rules fairer and more workable.

Consumers: sign the petition and show that you support fair and workable rules. Fewer small webshops in European markets ultimately also means less choice for consumers.

Support EUMEM: EUMEM is an initiative by business owners and other stakeholders campaigning for fairer EPR rules and a de minimis threshold for micro-enterprises. Their goal is to prevent the administrative burdens and costs of EPR rules from hitting small businesses disproportionately hard. Follow EUMEM on Instagram and help spread their message.

GUNDERWEAR is the webshop founded by Dave Verzijl in 2018 for premium men's underwear, swimwear and clubwear from international brands, with customers in the Netherlands, the rest of Europe and beyond.

Dave from GUNDERWEAR