The last two Labelexpo shows - Labelexpo Europe and Labelexpo Asia 2025 - demonstrated how core label converting technologies have been adapted to open up new opportunities in the flexible packaging and folding carton markets.

If there’s one acronym dominating the conversation in the European packaging and label industry today, it’s PPWR – the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. Far from being an abstract legislative framework, PPWR is a reality-altering force poised to reshape how labels are designed, produced, applied, and recycled. This article – the third in our FINAT European Label Forum 2025 recap series – explores how label businesses must adapt to this new regulatory environment. Through insights shared by key speakers and panelists including Francesca Stevens (EUROPEN), Pablo Englebienne (FINAT), Jean-Emile Potaufeux (PRE), Marius Tent (CELAB-Europe), Jan ‘t Hart (AIM Europe/HolyGrail 2.0) and Thomas Reiner (Berndt & Partner), we are able to distill what PPWR and other current regulations mean for the label business today, tomorrow, and beyond.

AWA Alexander Watson Associates will host the 6th annual AWAVirtual™ Insights Forum on January 30, 2026, bringing together leaders from across the global labeling and packaging value chain for a half-day of insight, discussion, and forward-looking perspectives.

The annual FINAT Label Competition enters its 46th year and remains as popular as ever. It is not only an opportunity for label printers to promote and highlight the advantages and uses of self-adhesive labels as an effective marketing, promotional or identification tool, but also a means of receiving global recognition from the international label industry for their achievements.

As 2025 draws to a close, we look back on a year in which a quiet mood of uncertainty has dominated business conversations around Europe. Many of us have spent this year recalibrating rather than expanding, testing assumptions rather than celebrating certainties. In our quarterly FINAT RADAR reports, that tone surfaced again and again: fragile growth after a turbulent cycle, nervous consumer confidence, geopolitical tension, a shifting global trade environment, and a growing sense that ‘uncertainty’ is no longer a phase but a baseline condition.

Remarkable increase accompanied by outstanding technology on display, exhibitors’ success and event sustainability with over 19,500sqm of carpet saved from landfill.

As the label industry gathers momentum after a turbulent economic cycle, business leaders across the European label value chain convened at the FINAT European Label Forum 2025 last May to chart a course for the future. In a rapidly evolving landscape shaped by global pressures, shifting consumer attitudes, and tightening sustainability regulations, the Forum has become an indispensable platform for insight, collaboration, and strategic direction.

A jam-packed edition of Packaging Europe’s Sustainable Packaging Summit, the Davos of Packaging, took place at the Jaarbeurs, Utrecht, from 10th – 12th November 2025 – attended by a record number of 854 delegates, 142 speakers, and 89 exhibitors.

The FINAT Technical Handbook has been the globally recognised standard on testing procedures for self-adhesive labels for more than 35 years. The use of standardised test methods is a fundamental building block of quality assurance in the label industry. From development to specification to production monitoring, the FINAT test methods described in the book are an important benchmark in the advancing standardisation of the industry.

Labelexpo Asia 2025, taking place from 2 - 5 December at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre, is Asia-Pacific's premier label and package printing industry event.