France has applied the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging since 1992 for household packaging. The Legislation n° 2020-105 of the 10^th February 2020 relating to the fight against waste and the circular economy (AGEC) in synchronization with Article 7 of Directive 2018/852 of 30th May 2018 amending Directive 94/62/EC upon packaging and packaging waste extends the EPR principle to the packaging of products that are used or consumed by professionals (non-household packaging or industrial/ commercial packaging).

This implementation of this legislation already started on the 1^st January 2023 with the obligation of packaging of professionals in the catering sector to be covered by a collective scheme.

From the 1^st January 2025, so called “other professional packaging” is now also subject to a mandatory coverage by a collective scheme.

Source: https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/politiques-publiques/emballages-professionnels

However, the regulatory framework for the other professional packaging is yet in the development stage less than three month prior to the deadline. While awaiting the publication of draft decrees and specifications, the collective scheme CITEO – which already covers the professional catering packaging today – prepares its infrastructure for the enhanced responsibility (Source: CITEO)

As it appears to the author of this article, meeting the deadline of the 31^st December 2024 for preparing the schemes may be still realistic. However, it seems ambitious to expect that by the 1^st January 2025 all producers of commercial/ industrial non-household packaging will be registered already.