The Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations 2006

Made: 13th March 2006

Laid before Parliament: 14th March 2006

Coming into force: 6th April 2006

The Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by sections 15(1) and 86 of the Weights and Measures Act 1985 and section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 makes the following Regulations.

In accordance with section 86(2)(b) of the Weights and Measures Act 1985, the Secretary of State has consulted such organisations as appear to him to be representative of interests substantially affected by these Regulations.

The Secretary of State is a Minister designated for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 in relation to the regulation, labelling and control of packages and products made up to a pre-determined constant nominal quantity.

Citation, commencement, revocation and extent

1

• (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations 2006 and shall come into force on 6th April 2006.

• (2) The enactments listed in Part 1 of Schedule 1 are repealed or revoked, and the enactments listed in Part 2 of Schedule 1 are amended, to the extent there specified.

• (3) These Regulations do not extend to Northern Ireland.

Interpretation

2

In these Regulations—

• “batch” means a group of packages selected in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 2 for the purposes of conducting a reference test;

• “bread” means bread in the form of single loaves (whether or not sliced);

• “cosmetic product” has the meaning given by Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on cosmetic products (recast) as amended from time to time;

• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• “the E-mark” means a letter `e', at least 3 mm high, having the form shown in Schedule 4;

• “food” has the meaning set out in Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002;

• “importer” means, in relation to a package or outer container, the person by whom, or on whose behalf, the package or outer container is brought into the United Kingdom;

• “inspector” means an inspector of weights and measures appointed under section 72(1) of the 1985 Act;

• “knitting yarn” means knitting yarn consisting of natural fibres (whether animal, vegetable or mineral), chemical fibres, or a mixture of such fibres;

• “labelling requirements” means the requirements set out in regulations 5(1)(a), 5(2), 6(1)(a), 6(1)(b), 6(2), 7, 8(1) and 8(3)(d);

• “local weights and measures authority” has the same meaning as in section 69 of the 1985 Act;

• “mass caterer” means any establishment (including a vehicle or a fixed or mobile stall), such as restaurants, canteens, schools, hospitals and catering enterprises in which, in the course of a business, food is prepared to be ready for consumption by the final consumer;

• ...

• “negative error” means the quantity by which the contents of a package are less than the nominal quantity;

• “nominal quantity” means the weight or volume marked on or in respect of a package pursuant to regulation 5(1)(a) or 6(1)(a), or entered in a record made under regulation 5(2) or 6(2) or, in the case of pre-packed food, the net quantity as required under Regulation 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the provision of food information to consumers;

• “outer container” means a container which contains two or more items, at least one of which is a package to which these Regulations apply, provided that:the items were placed in the container without the purchaser being present;the items cannot be removed from the container without the container being opened or undergoing a perceptible modification; andthe container is intended, or would normally be regarded as appropriate, for sale to an ultimate consumer as the outermost layer of packaging;

• “package” means the combination of a product and the individual package in which it is packed, provided that:the product is placed in the package without the purchaser being present; andexcept in the case of knitting yarn, the quantity of the product in the package cannot be altered without the package being opened or undergoing a perceptible modification;

• “packer” means the person who placed the product in the package or the packages in the outer container;

• “pre-packed” means, in relation to food, any single item for presentation as such to the final consumer and to mass caterers, consisting of a food and the packaging into which it was put before being offered for sale, whether such packaging encloses the food completely or only partially, but in any event in such a way that the contents cannot be altered without opening or changing the packaging; ‘pre-packed food’ does not cover foods packed on the sales premises at the consumer’s request or pre-packed for direct sale;

• “reference test” means the tests set out in Schedule 2;

• “the 1985 Act” means the Weights and Measures Act 1985;

• “the 1986 Regulations” means the Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations 1986 ;

• “tolerable negative error” means the amount set out in the table in Schedule 3 in relation to the nominal quantity of the package.

Scope of application

3

• (1) Subject to paragraphs (2) to (6), these Regulations apply to:

• (a) packages intended for sale in constant unit nominal quantities which are:

• (i) equal to values predetermined by the packer;

• (ii) expressed in units of weight or volume; and

• (iii) of not less than 5 grams or 5 millilitres and not more than 25 kilograms or 25 litres;

• (b) outer containers.

• (2) These Regulations also apply to bread which is sold either unwrapped or in open packets if:

• (i) it has been made up to a pre-determined constant quantity; and

• (ii) it is intended for sale in constant unit nominal quantities expressed in units of weight, which are not less than 300 grams per loaf and not more than 10 kilograms per loaf.

• (3) Schedule 5 sets out modifications in the application of these Regulations to bread.

• (4) These Regulations do not apply to packages which are not marked with the E-mark and which:

• (a) contain a product which is intended solely for use in, or in connection with, a process or treatment in the course of a trade or business;

• (b) contain a product which is:

• (i) intended, and which would normally be regarded as appropriate, for sale to an ultimate consumer; and

• (ii) made up in quantities of less than 5 grams or 5 millilitres;

where the packages are not intended, or would not normally be regarded as appropriate, for sale to an ultimate consumer;

• (c) contain a single application of a cosmetic product;

• (d) are intended for despatch outside the United Kingdom;

• (e) are intended for use by Her Majesty's forces or by a visiting force within the meaning of any of the provisions of Part I of the Visiting Forces Act 1952 ;

• (f) are intended for use as stores within the meaning of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 in a ship, aircraft or hovercraft on a voyage or flight to an eventual destination outside Great Britain; or

• (g) contain sugar in a quantity of less than 20 g.

• (5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (6) The labelling requirements do not apply to pre-packed food that is not marked with the E-mark, except that Regulation 8(1) shall continue to apply where trade practice provides that liquid products may be marked with nominal quantity by weight and that packages containing other products may be marked with nominal quantity by volume.

• (7) The obligations on the importer set out in regulation 5(1)(b) and regulation 6(1)(c) to ensure the package or outer container is marked with specified contact information do not apply where—

• (a) the importer has imported the package or outer container from an EEA state within the period of seven years beginning with IP completion day; and

• (b) it is marked with the contact information of the person in that EEA state who packed or imported the package or who arranged for the packer to make up or the importer to import the package.

Duty to comply with the three packers' rules

4

• (1) It shall be the duty of the packer or importer of packages to ensure that they are made up in such a way as to satisfy the following rules—

• (a) the contents of the packages shall be not less on average than the nominal quantity;

• (b) the proportion of packages having a negative error greater than the tolerable negative error shall be sufficiently small for batches of packages to satisfy the requirements specified in Schedule 2;

• (c) no package shall have a negative error greater than twice the tolerable negative error.

• (2) Compliance with the rules in paragraphs (1)(a) and (b) shall be determined by the reference test.

Duty of packers and importers to mark packages

5

• (1) It shall be the duty of the packer or the importer of a package to ensure that the package is marked, in such a manner as to be indelible, easily legible and visible in normal conditions of presentation, with the following—

• (a) the nominal quantity, being the predetermined constant quantity in which that package is made up (including any additional quantity to which any statement on the package refers) in accordance with regulation 8; and

• (b) the name and address of a person established in the United Kingdom who is either—

• (i) the packer or the importer of the package, or

• (ii) the person who arranged for the packer to make up, or the importer to import, the package,

or a mark which enables the name and address of such a person to be readily ascertained by his local weights and measures authority.

• (2) If at the time when a package is made up or imported the package is not marked with the nominal quantity as mentioned in paragraph (1)(a), it shall be the duty of the packer or the importer of the package—

• (a) to decide what he proposes to mark on the package in pursuance of that sub-paragraph, and

• (b) to make at that time, and to maintain until such time as the package is so marked, a record of the same.

• (3) A packer or importer may mark a package which—

• (a) is made up to comply with the requirements in regulation 4; and

• (b) has a nominal quantity not exceeding 10 kilograms or 10 litres,

with the E-mark, in which case the mark shall be indelible, easily legible and visible in normal conditions of presentation and be placed in the same field of vision as the indication of nominal quantity required by paragraph (1)(a).

• (4) Paragraphs (1) and (2) above shall not apply to milk which is sold or supplied to a consumer in a returnable container.

• (5) Where a package is sold or supplied to a consumer by a packer from his own premises, or from a vehicle used solely by him, paragraph (1)(b) shall only apply to that package if it is marked with the E-mark.

• (6) A packer or importer is not obliged to mark a package which is contained within an outer container and which is not intended, and would not normally be regarded as appropriate, for sale to an ultimate consumer as a separate item.

• (7) Where Article 19 of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on cosmetic products (recast), as amended from time to time, requires a package to bear information about the responsible person, as defined in Article 4 of that Regulation then the requirement in paragraph (1)(b) to mark the name and address of a packer or importer who is established in the United Kingdom shall not apply.

Duty of packers and importers to mark outer containers

6

• (1) It shall be the duty of the packer or the importer of an outer container, to ensure that an outer container is marked, in such a manner as to be indelible, easily legible and visible in normal conditions of presentation, with the following—

• (a) the nominal quantity of the packages contained in the outer container, being the predetermined constant quantity in which those packages are made up (including any additional quantity to which any statement on the package or outer container refers), or where the packages have different nominal quantities, each distinct nominal quantity, marked in accordance with regulation 8;

• (b) the number of packages contained in the outer container, or where the packages have different nominal quantities, the number of packages corresponding to each nominal quantity; and

• (c) the name and address of a person established in the United Kingdom who is either—

• (i) the packer or the importer of the packages contained in the outer container, or

• (ii) the person who arranged for the packer to make up, or the importer to import, those packages,

or a mark which enables the name and address of such a person to be readily ascertained by his local weights and measures authority.

• (2) If at the time when an outer container is packed or imported the outer container is not marked with the nominal quantities and number of packages as mentioned in paragraphs (1)(a) and (b), it shall be the duty of the packer or the importer of the outer container—

• (a) to decide what he proposes to mark on the outer container in pursuance of those sub-paragraphs, and

• (b) to make at that time, and to maintain until such time as the outer container is so marked, a record of the same.

• (3) If an outer container contains one or more packages which are, or could lawfully be, marked with the E-mark, then the outer container may also be marked with the E-mark, provided the E-mark—

• (a) is affixed in such a way that it refers only to, and is in the same field of vision as, the nominal quantity of the package or packages which are, or could lawfully be, marked with an E-mark; and

• (b) is indelible, easily legible and visible in normal conditions of presentation.

• (4) Where an outer container is sold or supplied to a consumer by the packer of the outer container from the packer's own premises, or from a vehicle used solely by him, paragraph (1)(c) shall only apply to that outer container if it is marked with the E-mark.

• (5) A packer or an importer of an outer container need not mark the outer container with the information required by paragraphs (1)(a) to (c) above if information is marked on inner packaging which can be viewed without opening the outer container and the information required by paragraphs (1)(a) to (c) can be readily ascertained from such information.

• (6) Where Article 19 of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on cosmetic products (recast) as amended from time to time, requires an outer container to bear information about the responsible person, as defined in Article 4 of that Regulation then the requirement in paragraph (1)(c) to mark the name and address of a packer or importer who is established in the United Kingdom shall not apply.

Liability for labelling packages and outer containers

7

Where an indication of nominal quantity is marked on a package or an outer container otherwise than pursuant to the duty imposed on a packer or importer by regulation 5(1) or regulation 6(1), then the person who marks that indication shall be subject to the duties imposed by these Regulations as though he were the packer of the package or outer container.

Specific requirements as to quantity marking

8

• (1) Packages containing liquid products shall be marked with the nominal quantity by volume and packages containing other products shall be marked with the nominal quantity by weight except where the law provides otherwise or, in the absence of a legal requirement, trade practice provides otherwise.

• (2) Where a package containing a solid foodstuff presented in a liquid medium (as defined in point 5 of Annex IX to Regulation (EC) 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the provision of food information to consumers) is marked with the net drained weight then that is to be treated as the nominal quantity.

• (3) Information as to the nominal quantity shall be marked in accordance with the following requirements:

• (a) the nominal quantity shall be expressed in the permitted metric units (except for milk in returnable packages where it may be expressed in pints) with the numerical value expressed in figures followed by the unit of measurement expressed in words or the relevant permitted symbol;

• (b) the permitted metric units and their symbols are:

Unit of measurement (metric)	symbol
kilogram	kg
gram	g
litre	l or L
centilitre	cl or cL
millilitre	ml or mL

• (c) a quantity (other than a fraction of a pint) shall not be expressed as a vulgar fraction;

• (d) the figures and words or symbols in which the nominal quantity is marked shall be of the following minimum height:

Nominal quantity and unit of measurement	Minimum height of words or figures
exceeding 1 kg	6 mm
exceeding 200 g but not exceeding 1 kg	4 mm
exceeding 50 g but not exceeding 200 g	3 mm
not exceeding 50 g	2 mm
exceeding 1 L	6 mm
exceeding 20 cl but not exceeding 1 L	4 mm
exceeding 5 cl but not exceeding 20 cl	3 mm
not exceeding 5 cl	2 mm