FAQ - Concepts in the statutory order

Manufacturer: Any natural or legal person who:

a) produces packaging or packaged product

b) has packaging or packaged product designed or manufactured under their own name or trademark, regardless of who has produced the packaging or the packaged product and whether other trademarks are visible on the packaging or the packaged product

c) offers packaging or packaged product to a micro-enterprise that has the packaging designed or manufactured under its own name or trademark, when it concerns transport packaging, reusable packaging, primary production packaging, service packaging, sales packaging or grouped packaging

An importer is any natural or legal person who is established in the EU and makes available packaging, or packaged product, from a third country on the EU market.

A distributor is any natural or legal person in the supply chain who is neither a manufacturer nor an importer, and who makes packaging or packaged products available on the Danish market.

Companies that employ fewer than 10 people and have an annual turnover, understood as the amount earned during a specific period, or an annual balance, understood as an overview of the company's assets and liabilities, not exceeding 15 million DKK.

Dansk Producentansvar states: 10 people are counted as heads. Part-time and full-time are counted equally.

The Danish statutory order is based on the forthcoming packaging regulation, which refers to the recommendation from the EU mentioned below, which the Environmental Protection Agency also refers to here.

We have made DPA aware of this difference.

Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC, Article 5:

The number of employed persons equals the number of annual work units (ÅAE), i.e., the number of persons who have worked full-time in the respective company or on behalf of this company during the entire year in question.

Work performed by persons who have not worked the entire year, or who have worked part-time, regardless of its duration, or seasonal workers is counted as fractions of ÅAE.

Included in the employed are:

a) employees

b) persons working for the company, who have a subordinate relationship with it and are treated as employees under national law

c) active business owners

d) partners who regularly work in the company and benefit economically from the company

Apprentices and students under vocational training who have entered into an apprenticeship contract or vocational training contract are not included in the number of employed. Maternity leave and parental leave are not included.

Availability as defined in the statutory order:

Delivery of packaging, or packaged product, for the purpose of distribution, consumption, or use on the Danish market as part of a commercial activity, whether it occurs for compensation or free of charge.

DPA has stated that what is decisive for availability is who has entered into or mediated the agreement regarding the packaging/the packaged product - and not who, for example, has sent and paid the invoice or where the respective packaging/packaged product physically resides (logistics).

The Environmental Protection Agency has indicated that they are working on a guidance document, in which we expect availability to be further clarified.

The end user is any natural or legal person who is resident or established in the EU, to whom packaging or packaged product is made available, either as a consumer or as a commercial end user, as part of their industrial or commercial activities, and who does not make the packaging or the packaged product available on the market in the form in which it was delivered.

Distance contracts are direct sales between the business and the end user of packaging, where the two parties are not physically present, for example through online sales.

Distance contracts also cover B2B, where the end user is a commercial enterprise.

The statutory order on packaging: Distance contracts are any agreements for the sale or purchase of packaging made between the producer and the end user, without the simultaneous physical presence of the producer and the end user, and where one or more forms of distance communication techniques, including online sales, are exclusively used at the time of the conclusion of the agreement.