Batteries and waste batteries

1. Subject matter and scope

This Regulation lays down requirements on sustainability, safety, labelling, marking and information to allow the placing on the market or putting into service of batteries within the Union. It also lays down minimum requirements for extended producer responsibility, the collection and treatment of waste batteries and for reporting.

This Regulation imposes battery due diligence obligations on economic operators placing batteries on the market or putting them into service. It also lays down requirements for green public procurement when procuring batteries or products into which batteries are incorporated.

This Regulation applies to all categories of batteries, namely:

– portable batteries,

– starting, lighting and ignition batteries (SLI batteries),

– light means of transport batteries (LMT batteries),

– electric vehicle batteries and

– industrial batteries,

regardless of their shape, volume, weight, design, material composition, chemistry, use or purpose.

It shall also apply to batteries that are incorporated into or added to products or that are specifically designed to be incorporated into or added to products.

For the purposes of Chapter II, where batteries placed on the market can be considered to fall under more than one category, they shall be deemed to fall under the category to which the strictest requirements apply.

In cases where battery cells or battery modules are made available on the market for end use, without any further incorporation or assembly into larger battery packs or batteries, they shall be considered to have been placed on the market as batteries for the purposes of this Regulation, and the requirements for the most similar battery category shall apply. In cases where it can be considered that such battery cells or battery modules fall under more than one battery category, they shall be deemed to fall under the category to which the strictest requirements apply.

2. Exemptions

This Regulation does not apply to batteries that are incorporated into or that are specifically designed to be incorporated into:

(a) equipment connected with the protection of Member States’ essential security interests, arms, munitions and war material, with the exclusion of products that are not intended for specifically military purposes; and

(b) equipment designed to be sent into space. 

Chapters III and VIII of this Regulation do not apply to equipment specifically designed for the safety of nuclear installations, as defined in Article 3 of Council Directive 2009/71/Euratom.

3. Sustainability and safety requirements

Sustainability and safety requirements are defined in Chapter II (articles 6 – 12).

4. Conformity of batteries (art.15 – 20)

For the purposes of compliance and verification of compliance of batteries with the requirements laid down in Articles 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 and 78, tests, measurements and calculations shall be made using reliable, accurate and reproducible methods which take into account the generally recognised state-of-the-art methods, and the results of which are deemed to be of low uncertainty, including methods set out in standards for which references have been published for those purposes in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Harmonised standards shall aim to simulate real-life usage as far as possible while maintaining standard tests.

Batteries which are in conformity with harmonised standards, or parts thereof, for which references have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union shall be presumed to be in conformity with the requirements laid down in Articles 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 and 78 to the extent that those requirements are covered by such harmonised standards or parts thereof, and, if applicable, to the extent that the minimum values established for those requirements pursuant to Articles 9 and 10 are attained.

4. Entry into force and application

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from 18 February 2024, save as set out in the second subparagraph and in other provisions of this Regulation.

The following provisions shall apply as follows:
(a) Article 11 shall apply from 18 February 2027;

(b) Article 17 and Chapter VI shall apply from 18 August 2024, except for Article 17(2) which shall apply from 12 months after the date of the first publication of the list referred to in Article 30(2);

(c) Chapter VIII shall apply from 18 August 2025.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

5. Harmonised standards

Not published yet.

6. FAQ

More information you can find here.