Belgian Competition Authority’s informal opinion on sustainability commitment in the coffee sector

Context

The European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (“PPWR”) is a new European regulation aimed at reducing packaging waste and promoting sustainability across the European Union. The PPWR will become effective on 12 August 2026 and will impose extended producer responsibility for packaging and will mandate that only industrially compostable coffee pads may be marketed from 12 February 2028.

Currently, about 80% of coffee pads are compostable, but both compostable and non-compostable pads are collected as residual waste, contaminating recycling streams.

The proposed sustainability commitment

Comeos, the Belgian Federation for Commerce and Services, representing businesses in retail, wholesale, e-commerce and restaurants, and Koffiecafe, an association of coffee roasters and sellers, requested under Article IV.19, § 1, 5° of the Code of Economic Law (“CEL”) an informal opinion from the Belgian Competition Authority (“BCA”) regarding a proposed sustainability commitment between competitors regarding several PPWR future obligations.

Under this commitment, the objective is to apply the obligations in the PPWR 18 months earlier to reduce contamination and support a circular economy. The commitment aims at reducing residual waste by approximately 4,600 tons annually. Its objectives align with EU sustainability goals and respond to waste management authorities.

BCA’s assessment of the sustainability commitment under competition law

In its detailed informal opinion published on 19 December 2025, the BCA first considered that the proposed commitment is aimed exclusively at ensuring compliance with requirements contained in a binding European regulation before the date of application of these requirements. The applicants’ sustainability commitment derives from the PPWR, which requires industrially compostable packaging by 12 February 2028. The BCA viewed this as equivalent to an agreement to meet binding legal obligations.

Moreover, the BCA determined that the sustainability commitment will not significantly restrict the choice of coffee pads. Indeed, the BCA considered that in addition to variety in the nature of the packaging, there are other important parameters in the choice of coffee pads, such as price, quality and functionality of the coffee pads. The BCA therefore concluded that such commitment will not substantially restrict the choice between coffee pads.

The BCA recognised that the sustainability commitment will reduce the costs of waste disposal for used coffee pads, which makes the risk of price increases at least negligible.

Finally, the BCA analysed other aspects of the sustainability commitment, such as potential exchange of information or market foreclosure, but did not identify any competition law issues.

Conclusion

The BCA found the commitment proposed by Comeos and Koffiecafe did not appreciably restrict competition and falls outside the scope of Article IV.1 CEL and Article 101(1) TFEU.

Economic actors can request informal opinions from the BCA. These opinions provide useful guidance on new forms of agreements or on practices that are in a grey area, although they are rare. The informal opinions are not binding and do not prevent the BCA from opening a subsequent investigation. Further, an informal opinion cannot be issued by the BCA if a formal investigation is already under way on a similar subject.

Sustainability agreements are a hot topic in Belgium. Following several cases, in October 2025 the BCA published, for a public consultation, draft guidelines on sustainability agreements. In the draft guidelines, the BCA developed its opinions on sustainability agreements, assessing whether they were less or more likely to hinder competition, and it included a self-assessment grid.