'Declaration of completeness audit guidelines' for the 2024 reference year
Last updated: 19 November 2024, applicable from the 2024 reference year
Declaration of completeness audit guidelines
Section 26 (1) no. 28 VerpackG (Packaging Act) authorises the Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister (Central Agency Packaging Register – ZSVR) to develop audit guidelines that auditors and experts must adhere to. The audit guidelines require approval from the German Federal Cartel Office. The Verpackungsgesetz (Packaging Act) calls for audits and/or confirmations by auditors or experts at various junctures.
Information for auditors and experts about recent court decisions
The declaration of completeness audit guidelines require auditors and experts to stay up to date on recent court decisions and their implications, ensuring these decisions are considered in audit activities (C.2.1.4).
Five new first-instance judgments by administrative courts must be taken into account when auditing declarations of completeness for the 2024 reference year. All of these judgments uphold the ZSVR's classification decisions and confirm that the system participation requirement catalogue constitutes an administrative regulation.
The implications of these court decisions are as follows:
Packaging status must be determined based on objective criteria rather than a producer's perspective. Reusable shopping bags (decision #1), glasses cases (decision #2) and dummy cases (#3) are to be classified as packaging subject to system participation.
The classification of an article of packaging as subject to system participation is based on a generalised market assessment and is not producer specific. For this classification, the system participation requirement catalogue with its various product groups must be used. Packaging for paint and lacquer as well as other construction chemicals (decision #4) and packaging for mayonnaise (decision #5) must be classified according to the quantity thresholds specified in the catalogue.
Food packaging is an exception: regardless of its quantity, it is not subject to system participation if it can be ruled out that it is handed over to private households or collective catering establishments such as canteens or commercial kitchens.
The judgments are not yet legally binding. If producers do not follow the ZSVR's classification – confirmed in first-instance rulings – when determining their system participation volumes, any deviations must be documented. According to the declaration of completeness audit guidelines, any deviation from the system participation requirement catalogue must be documented separately in the audit report and quantified by material type and mass (C. 2.2.29 and C. 4).
Go to written reasons for these judgments
For more information, please see our press releases on these court decisions:
Evolution of the declaration of completeness audit guidelines
The current declaration of completeness audit guidelines start taking effect with the 2024 reference year. These guidelines must be followed when auditing declarations of completeness, which need to be filed with the ZSVR by 15 May of the year following the reference year.
The audit guidelines provide clarifications to help auditors achieve reasonable assurance in their audit results. Front-loading audit activities helps to stagger the process and simplify substantive procedures conducted within a structural and functional audit of the relevant internal control system. This structure of front-loading and staggering is designed to support auditors in carrying out their work effectively.
The key updates to the content are:
- Restructured audit areas, including some additional specifications
- Structural and functional audit of internal control systems
Additions to audit activities concerning:
— Participation agreements (audit area B.1.2)
— Flagged year-on-year volume changes (audit area B.1.2)
— Volume transfers between producers (audit area B.1.2)
— Zero-sum volumes (audit area B.3.1)
— Retrospective volume transfers (audit area B.1.2)
— Packaging volumes pursuant to section 15 VerpackG (Packaging Act) (audit area B.1.3)Specifications added to audit reports (C.2)
Updates to the glossary (appendix 1).
Declaration of completeness audit guidelines
Pursuant to section 11 (3) VerpackG, the ZSVR has published standard operating procedures concerning the electronic filing procedure in the form of the 'declaration of completeness technical guidelines'. These guidelines require the use of certain electronic forms and input screens as well as access to the LUCID Packaging Register. The requirements set out in these guidelines must be complied with when making filings.