European Court: Cores are packaging; verdict issued in response to questions from the Paris Commercial Court
(Brussels, Nov. 30, 2016) Cores are defined as packaging. The European Court has confirmed this regulation after two suits were brought by French companies.
The Court of Justice of the European Union has clarified the definition of packaging in two cases referred by French courts. In its judgement, the General Court (previously the Court of First Instance) rules that “roll cores in the form of rolls, tubes and cylinders around which flexible material is wound and sold to consumers” constitute packaging within the meaning of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive.
The ECJ issued this verdict in response to questions that the Paris Commercial Court and the French Council of State referred for preliminary rulings (case references C-313/15 and C-530/15).
The two French cases are related to Directive 2013/2/EU, which was adopted to clarify the scope of the Packaging Directive (94/62/EC) by adding new examples of packaging and non-packaging materials to its Annex I. The new entries include “rolls, tubes and cylinders around which flexible material such as plastic film and paper is wound” as an example of packaging. Under the Directive, these cores are only to be considered non-packaging if they are “intended as parts of production machinery and not used to present a product as a sales unit”. (Source: press release)
