Legal provisions:

Article 3(1), point (1), defines ‘packaging’ as ‘an item, irrespective of the materials from which it is made, that is intended to be used by an economic operator for the containment, protection, handling, delivery or presentation of products to another economic operator or to an end user, and that can be differentiated by packaging format based on its function, material and design, including: an item that is necessary to contain, support or preserve a product throughout its lifetime, without being an integral part of the product, and which is intended to be used, consumed or disposed of together with the product; a component of, and ancillary element to, an item referred to in point (a) that is integrated into the item; an ancillary element to an item referred to in point (a) that is hung directly on, or attached to, the product and that performs a packaging function, without being an integral part of the product, and which is intended to be used, consumed or disposed of together with the product; an item that is designed and intended to be filled at the point of sale in order to dispense the product, which is also referred to as “service packaging”; a disposable item that is sold and filled or designed and intended to be filled at the point of sale and which performs a packaging function; a permeable tea, coffee or other beverage bag, or soft after-use system single-serve unit that contains tea, coffee or another beverage, and which is intended to be used and disposed of together with the product; a non-permeable tea, coffee or other beverage system single-serve unit intended for use in a machine and which is used and disposed of together with the product;’. Annex I to the Regulation provides an indicative list of items that are considered packaging and items that are not. With respect to flowerpots and plant pots, including seed trays, Annex I distinguishes between: ‘Items that are packaging: (…) Flower and plant pots, including seed trays, intended to be used only for selling and transporting. (…) Items that are not packaging: Flower and plant pots, including seed trays, used in business-to-business relations throughout different stages of production or intended to be sold with the plant’.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.