The 40% empty space rule

The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation entered into force on 11 February 2025 and became applicable after an eighteen-month transition, on 12 August 2026. It replaces the old Packaging Directive with a regulation, which means it applies directly in every member state without national transposition.

For online sellers the headline requirement is the empty space ratio: e-commerce packaging, grouped packaging and transport packaging may not exceed 40% empty space. Alongside it come obligations on packaging minimisation more broadly, and a declaration of conformity for each type of packaging you place on the market.

Take the total volume of the shipping box, subtract the combined volume of the products inside it, and divide the remainder by the box volume. If the answer is above 0.4, the packaging breaches the cap.

The subtlety that catches people out is what counts as filled. Void fill materials — air pillows, paper, foam, moulded inserts used purely as filler — are treated as empty space. A box stuffed to the brim with paper is, for the purposes of this calculation, a box full of air.

The regulation does allow more empty space where it is technically necessary: to protect the product, to meet safety or hygiene requirements, where the packaging is also needed for handling, or where reducing it further would compromise the integrity of the goods.

This is an exemption you have to be able to justify. In practice that means keeping a record of why a given box-and-product combination needs the space it uses. An exemption you have never written down is difficult to rely on when an authority asks.

Start by mapping which of your box sizes carry which orders. Most merchants find that a small number of box-and-product combinations account for the large majority of shipments, so auditing twenty combinations tells you most of what you need to know.

Then measure. Compliance and cost point the same way here: couriers bill by volumetric weight, so the box you shrink to satisfy Article 24 is also the box that lowers your shipping bill. This is the rare regulation where doing the right thing pays for itself.