From 12 August 2026, a new packaging regulation applies across the entire European Union, the so-called PPWR (Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2025/40). It affects practically every business that packages products and places them on the market. Including us.

We would like to explain openly what this regulation means for Pitlock and why we fully support its goals. And why we are nonetheless temporarily unable to offer deliveries to the EU, neither to individual customers nor to our specialist dealers and workshops.

What the PPWR Is About

The PPWR was adopted as part of the European Green Deal and pursues a goal we fully share: less packaging waste, better recyclability, a stronger circular economy. In concrete terms, the regulation requires, among other things:

• packaging must be designed to be recyclable
• certain substances (e.g. PFAS) are restricted
• packaging must carry harmonised labelling
• businesses that "place packaging on the market" must register and, under the so-called extended producer responsibility, bear the costs of collecting and disposing of packaging waste

That last point is the real sticking point for us.

Why This Hits a Small Business Particularly Hard

PITLOCK is a microenterprise, few employees, a modest annual turnover. We manufacture in the EU and have shipped across Europe for years, both directly to cyclists and to a network of specialist dealers and workshops.

This is exactly where the problem lies. The PPWR requires businesses to register in every single EU member state they ship to, in that country's national packaging register. Regardless of whether the shipment goes to an end customer or to a dealer. There is no general de minimis threshold for small businesses. Even if we only ship small quantities to a given country, the registration obligation still arises there.

For a business our size, that means in practice:

• registration in up to 26 different countries, each following its own national procedure
• in countries where we have no establishment, appointing a local authorised representative to act on our behalf
• ongoing reporting obligations in each of these countries
• and all of this comes with real costs, for registration, authorised representatives, legal advice, and the time our small team would need to put into it

This is an administrative burden that is out of proportion to our shipping volumes in many of these countries. Some of our EU markets are commercially significant for us, others amount to a modest, sometimes low three-digit turnover. The legal obligations would be identical in both cases.

What We Are Doing Now

To stay on the safe side and avoid breaching obligations we cannot currently fulfil responsibly, we have temporarily suspended shipping to the EU, both for individual customers and for our trade partners. This was not a decision we took lightly, especially as many of our dealers and customers across Europe have been loyal to us for years.

We are currently reviewing this country by country, checking where registration makes economic and organisational sense, and where it does not. It is quite possible that we will resume shipping to individual countries that matter to us once registration there is sorted out, even if that takes longer, or does not happen at all, for other countries.

What Matters to Us

We want to state this clearly: we have nothing against the goals of the PPWR. Less packaging waste, better recyclability, more responsibility for producers regarding the disposal of their packaging, these are goals we support and that align with our own self-understanding, having offered durable, repairable products instead of throwaway goods for over 30 years.

What is causing us difficulty is not the regulation's goal, but its practical implementation for small businesses: a registration requirement in up to 26 countries, with no relief for small quantities, and with real costs and administrative burden in every single country. For a team our size, that is simply not something we can responsibly manage in the short term.

We will keep working on this, keep you updated here, and hope to be able to ship to more countries again soon.

Based in Europe? Feel Free to Get in Touch

Even while shipping is paused: if you are in another EU country and have a question about an existing Pitlock set, a spare part, a lost code, or anything else that is not tied to shipping, please reach out via our contact form. We look at every request individually and will tell you honestly what is currently possible and what is not, yet.

Note: This article describes our current business assessment and does not constitute legal advice. It is based on an initial legal assessment provided to us by our chamber of commerce (IHK), as well as on the European Commission's guidelines on Regulation (EU) 2025/40. We cannot guarantee the completeness or accuracy of the information provided. AI was used to help structure and edit this article.