Empty space calculator

What the rule actually says

The 50 % maximum empty-space ratio applies to grouped packaging, transport packaging and e-commerce packaging - the outer box, not the item inside it. It binds from 1 January 2030, or three years after the Commission's Article 24(2) implementing acts enter into force, whichever is later. Because of that "whichever is later" wording, the date can only move further out than 2030 - it cannot arrive earlier.

The widespread version of this rule is wrong on both counts. A lot of vendor and SEO content states a "40 % empty space cap from August 2026". The ratio is 50 %, not 40 %, and the earliest possible date is 1 January 2030, not August 2026.

Empty space is the outer packaging's total volume minus the volume of the sales packaging it contains; the ratio is that empty space divided by the outer packaging's total volume. Filling materials count as empty space, not as contents - the regulation names paper cuttings, air cushions, bubble wrap, sponge fillers, foam fillers, wood wool, polystyrene and Styrofoam chips as examples, among others.

If you ship an item in its own retail box with no separate shipping carton, this ratio doesn't apply to that shipment at all - Article 24(5) exempts sales packaging used directly as e-commerce packaging.

A separate duty sits alongside the ratio: from 12 February 2028, anyone filling sales packaging - the retail box itself, not the outer shipping carton - must keep its empty space to the minimum the product needs for protection and functionality. There's no numeric ratio for this one, and no implementing-act condition, so 12 February 2028 is a fixed date that arrives almost two years before the 50 % ratio does.