EU Packaging Law Confirms No Ban on Bottled Water Multipacks

Social‑media posts, amplified by far‑right MEP Virginie Joron of France, claimed the European Union would prohibit shrink‑wrapped bottles of water from August 2026. The claim referred to the EU's new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). Fact‑checks show the regulation does not impose a blanket ban on bottled‑water multipacks. While the PPWR introduces limits on certain plastic shrink‑wrap and new restrictions on PFAS chemicals in food‑contact packaging effective 12 August 2026, it leaves many packaging formats, including non‑plastic packs, permissible and includes exemptions for necessary grouped packaging.

The broader aim of the PPWR is to reduce packaging waste across the bloc, targeting all packaging placed on the EU market to be recyclable or reusable by 2030. Eurostat reported the EU generated 79.7 million tonnes of packaging waste in 2023, averaging 35.3 kg per person. Virginie Joron later clarified her earlier post referred to long‑term objectives rather than an immediate ban, denouncing what she called “total regulatory uncertainty” for the mineral‑water industry.