Italy packaging EPR for non-EU sellers (CONAI and the national register)

Since 12 August 2026 a business outside the EU that ships packaged goods straight to Italian buyers is the producer in Italy under the PPWR and carries extended producer responsibility for that packaging (Art. 3(1) point 15(d), Art. 45(1)). Italy collects packaging EPR through CONAI, the national packaging consortium, and charges it as a fee on the packaging that enters the Italian market. CONAI says foreign companies are not obliged to join CONAI and may join voluntarily (CONAI), and voluntary membership is the route CONAI offers. The texts read do not say how that sentence and the PPWR rule fit together. No Italian text read requires an Italian authorised representative from a producer seated outside the EU (D.Lgs. 152/2006 art. 178-ter(8)); whether the PPWR does is open, see below.

The EU rule, and who counts as a producer, is in packaging EPR in the EU and the PPWR. This page is only what Italy adds. The other Italian rules are on the Italy page. Environmental labelling of packs is on its own Italy page.

Do this, in this order

1. Sell through a marketplace? The platform route works only where an agreement has been signed. A producer on an e-commerce platform may meet its EPR duties through the services the platform must offer under agreements between platforms and the consortia (art. 178-quater(3)). Those agreements give platforms an adjustment period of at least 12 months (art. 178-quater(5)). No packaging agreement in force was found. For packaging, such agreements cover producers with their legal seat outside Italy who gave the platform operator a written mandate (art. 178-quater(10)). If you decline the platform’s services, CONAI says you must join CONAI and meet all its requirements (CONAI).
2. Selling from your own shop: you are the producer, and CONAI membership is voluntary. Since 12 August 2026 you carry extended producer responsibility in Italy for the packaging you ship straight to Italian buyers (PPWR Art. 3(1) point 15(d), Art. 45(1)). The environment ministry’s PPWR self-assessment lists four duties for an EPR producer: registration, data, a scheme (membership or compliance by a route national law recognises), and contributions with proof (MASE, Module 1). CONAI says foreign companies are not obliged to join CONAI and may join voluntarily, and that is the route CONAI offers: request the membership form at aziendaestera@conai.org (CONAI). A foreign company that joins elects a special domicile in Italy, and a company seated outside the EU with no Italian establishment gives a guarantee covering the fee presumably due over the next 12 months, renewed each year (CONAI FAQ). The membership fee is a one-time EUR 5.16 plus a variable amount. The texts read do not say whether CONAI membership meets the PPWR duty.
3. Declare and pay the fee once you are a member. The first year is quarterly. The declaration is due by the 20th of the month after the period, through the CONAI online declaration service. CONAI invoices you, and you pay on receipt (CONAI).
4. Seated in another EU state: name an Italian representative. Seated outside the EU: the texts leave it open. The representative registers you with the chamber of commerce and meets the EPR duties (art. 178-ter(8), DM 144/2024 art. 4(3)). If you are seated outside the EU, the Italian clause does not name you, and PPWR Art. 45(3)Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Packaging and Packaging Waste RegulationArticle 45, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. reads two ways, set out below.
5. Give marketplaces your registration number when a packaging register opens. A seller on a platform communicates its register number to the platform and shows it on its website (DM 144/2024 art. 4(9)). The packaging registers are not open yet, see below.

The consortium fee follows the packaging into Italy

Producers and users of packaging answer for it in proportion to the packaging they place on the national market, and they take part in CONAI unless they run an own system (art. 221(1)-(3)). Art. 218 counts suppliers of packaging material, manufacturers, converters and importers of empty packaging as producers, and traders, distributors, fillers and importers of filled packaging as users (art. 218(1)(r)-(s)). CONAI fixes the fee, the contributo ambientale CONAI (art. 224(3)(h)).

CONAI shows the fee on the invoice of the first transfer within Italy. Packaging and packaging material imported from abroad are subject to it. For imports, the company that places the packaging on the market declares and pays the fee, unless a foreign company registered voluntarily with CONAI has already paid it (CONAI). For packaged goods CONAI offers an ordinary procedure, a simplified procedure with three options, and a flat-rate procedure for small businesses (CONAI). The fee carries VAT.

Fee per tonne, in EUR, as CONAI lists it from 1 October 2026:

The earlier columns of the same CONAI table differ for plastic and compostable plastic: plastic band A1.1 was 40 until 30 September 2026 and compostable plastic 130 until 30 June 2026 (CONAI). For tariffs in France and Spain, see EPR fees.

The national register has no packaging register open yet

Art. 178-ter(8) sets up the Registro nazionale dei produttori (RENAP) at the environment ministry, and every producer under an EPR regime must register in it. RENAP is made of sector registers. DM 144/2024 names seven packaging registers in Annex 1 (plastic, paper, glass, wood, steel, aluminium and bioplastic) and leaves the working of each to a ministerial decree (art. 3(3)). The RENAP home page lists three open registers: electrical equipment, batteries and tyres (RENAP). A chamber of commerce issues the registration number, and the number goes on commercial documents (art. 4(8)). The PPWR sets the timing for a packaging register in each EU country: within 18 months of the date of entry into force of the first implementing act under its Art. 44(14), which the Commission was to adopt by 12 February 2026 (Art. 44(1), (14)). The texts read do not show that act as adopted.

How this sits beside the PPWR

The PPWR has applied since 12 August 2026 (Art. 71). It makes a business outside the EU that ships packaged goods straight to end users in an EU country a producer there (Art. 3(1) point 15(d)), gives that producer extended producer responsibility for the packaging it first makes available there (Art. 45(1)), and bars making packaging available until the producer, or its authorised representative, is registered in that country (Art. 44(4)).

Authorised representative for a producer outside the EU. Art. 45(3) can be read two ways, and the texts read settle neither.

• Reading one. The first sentence says a producer under Art. 3(1) point 15(c)Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Packaging and Packaging Waste RegulationArticle 3, point 15, point (c)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. and (d)Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Packaging and Packaging Waste RegulationArticle 3, point 15, point (d)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. shall appoint an authorised representative for the EPR in each EU country where it first makes packaging available, other than the one where it is established. Points (c) and (d) include producers established in a third country, so on this reading a non-EU seller appoints one in Italy (Art. 45(3)).
• Reading two. The second sentence says EU countries may provide that producers established in third countries shall appoint one, and recital 123 says it should be possible for EU countries to make that appointment mandatory. On this reading the third-country case is a national option (Art. 45(3)).

Italy’s representative clause names EU-seated producers, which Directive 2008/98/ECDirective 2008/98/EC, Waste Framework DirectiveThe whole regulationClick opens the law on the EU Publications Office. already obliges a country to allow to appoint one (Art. 8a(5)). No Italian text read requires a representative from a producer outside the EU.

The environment ministry’s PPWR self-assessment, updated to 10 August 2026, lists a business that sells from abroad to customers in Italy as a “venditore a distanza” and as a subject with a possible authorised representative (MASE).

Decree-law 7 August 2026, n. 143 was published in Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 182 of 7 August 2026 (Normattiva) and came into force on 8 August 2026. Parliament converted it with changes by Law 5 October 2026, n. 173, published in Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 232 of 6 October 2026 and in force from 7 October 2026 (art. 1(2)). It was published on the last day of the 60-day window, so the decree-law did not lapse (Constitution, art. 77). The coordinated text is in the same issue.

The decree-law adds art. 226-quinquies to D.Lgs. 152/2006: a compostability duty for four kinds of single-use packaging, with no registration or fee element. They are (a) plastic packs for less than 1.5 kg of pre-packed fresh fruit and vegetables, (b) plastic food and drink packs filled and consumed on hotel, restaurant and catering premises, (c) plastic condiment portions in hotels, restaurants and catering, and (d) flexible packs for cosmetics and hygiene products in accommodation. These packs are made available on the Italian market certified by accredited bodies as biodegradable and compostable under UNI EN 13432 or an equivalent standard recognised at European level. From 1 January 2030 a breach is fined EUR 2,500 to 25,000, raised up to four times the maximum where the packaging concerned is worth more than 10% of the offender’s turnover (new art. 261(4-quinquies)). The fine figures, the uplift and the 2030 start are the same after the conversion. What the conversion changed:

• Cosmetics packs. The fourth category applies only where the product inside is certified biodegradable and compostable (art. 226-quinquies(1)(d)).- Paragraph 2, replaced. The duties do not apply to (a) fresh produce packs, or to condiment portions needed for safety and hygiene where there is a medical requirement for individualised care, such as hospitals, clinics or nursing homes ((c)(2)), under the conditions of Annex V points 2 and 4 of the PPWR. Point 2 lets an EU country exempt fresh produce packs where there is a demonstrated need to avoid water or turgidity loss, microbiological hazards, physical shocks or oxidation, or no other way to keep organic and non-organic produce apart. Nor do the duties apply to (b) hotel, restaurant and catering food and drink packs under Art. 25(4) of the PPWR, which lets an EU country allow micro-enterprises to use those packs where doing without them, or reaching a reuse system, is not technically feasible.
• Paragraph 2-bis, new. Until the Commission guidelines under Art. 25(6) of the PPWR, due by 12 February 2027, are put into effect, the duties do not apply to (a) packaging holding named fresh fruit and vegetables (cherries, strawberries, tomatoes and leafy salads among them), fresh herbs, cultivated mushrooms and ready-to-eat cut fruit and vegetables.
• A documents defence against the fine. The fine does not apply to an operator that shows it acquired the packaging on the strength of suitable documents from the manufacturer, importer or distributor stating conformity with art. 226-quinquies. The defence is lost if the operator knew the packaging did not conform or the non-conformity was evident.

If you do nothing

Art. 261 sets the fines for packaging EPR. The province where the violation happened imposes them, and the opposition goes to the court (art. 262).

Source: art. 261(1)-(2). The PPWR requires a country to lay down its penalty rules for the Regulation by 12 February 2027 (Art. 68(1)).

A CONAI member that applies no fee, declares more than 30 days after the deadline, or declares wrongly, pays 50% of the sums due for a first infringement and 150% for later ones, halved if it does not contest. A member that reports its own breach before checks begin, and declares and pays within 30 days, pays no penalty. Checks then reach back 5 years instead of 10, and payment can run in instalments over up to 36 months (CONAI).

What the texts leave open

• Art. 218 defines producers and users by the packaging they import into Italy, and treats a consumer who imports packaging, articles or goods for own use as a consumer (art. 218(1)(v)). It does not mention a distance seller shipping to that consumer. CONAI says foreign companies are not obliged to join and may join voluntarily, and points platform sellers to art. 178-quater; it does not say how that sits with the PPWR producer rule (CONAI FAQ).
• The clause on representatives (art. 178-ter(8)) and DM 144/2024 (art. 4(3)) name EU-seated producers. No Italian text read requires a representative from a producer seated outside the EU. PPWR Art. 45(3)Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Packaging and Packaging Waste RegulationArticle 45, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. reads two ways for a third-country producer, set out above.
• The seven packaging registers of DM 144/2024 Annex 1 are named and not open. The texts read do not say how a seller outside the EU registers in the meantime, or whether CONAI membership counts as registration or meets the PPWR duty.
• CONAI’s web pages give no amount for the minimum fee below which it sends no invoice. Its FAQ points to chapter 5 of the CONAI Guide, which was not opened. The declaration page links tables of the quantities and values under the declaration-exemption threshold for 2015 to 2025 and names three options of the simplified procedure without listing them (CONAI).

What does not apply

• A tonnage threshold: art. 221 names none. Microenterprise packaging is outside the platform route only, under the conditions of art. 178-quater(11); the EU rule has no such exemption (packaging EPR in the EU).
• A material consortium for a user. Producers join the consortia of art. 223 or run a recognised own system (art. 221-bis). Users may join them voluntarily where a consortium accepts them (CONAI).
• Electrical equipment and battery EPR. Each has its own register: see the Italy page.