Battery Regulation

1. Distributors shall take back waste batteries from the end-user free of charge and without imposing an obligation on the end-user to buy or to have bought a new battery, regardless of their chemical composition, brand or origin as follows:

(a) for waste portable batteries, at or in the immediate vicinity of the distributor’s retail outlet;

(b) for waste LMT batteries, waste SLI batteries, waste industrial batteries and waste electric vehicle batteries, at or in the vicinity of the distributor’s retail outlet.

2. The take back obligation laid down in paragraph 1:

(a) shall not apply to waste products containing batteries;

(b) shall be limited to the categories of waste batteries which the distributor has or had as batteries in its offer and, for waste portable batteries, to the quantity that non-professional end-users normally discard.

3. Distributors shall hand over waste batteries that they have taken back to the producers or producer responsibility organisations who are responsible for collecting those waste batteries in accordance with Articles 59, 60 and 61 respectively, or to a waste management operator selected in accordance with Article 57(8) with a view to their treatment in accordance with Article 70.

4. The obligations under this Article shall apply mutatis mutandis to distributors that supply batteries by means of distance contracts to end-users. Those distributors shall provide for a sufficient number of collection points covering the whole territory of a Member State and taking into account population size and density, expected volume of waste portable batteries, waste LMT batteries, waste SLI batteries, waste industrial batteries and waste electric vehicle batteries respectively, and accessibility for and proximity to end-users, allowing end-users to return batteries.

5. In the case of sales with delivery, distributors shall offer to take back waste portable batteries, waste LMT batteries, waste industrial batteries, waste SLI batteries and waste electric vehicle batteries free of charge at the point of delivery to the end-user or at a local collection point. The end-user shall be informed when ordering a battery of the take back arrangements for a waste battery.

6. For the purposes of compliance with Article 30(1), points (d) and (e), of Digital Services Act (DSA), providers of online platforms, falling within the scope of Section 4 of Chapter III of that Regulation, that allow consumers to conclude distance contracts with producers shall obtain the following information from producers offering batteries, including batteries incorporated in appliances, light means of transport or other vehicles, to consumers located in the Union:

(a) details concerning the register of producers referred to in Article 55 and the producer’s registration number or registration numbers in that register;

(b) a self-certification by the producer committing to only offer batteries, including those incorporated in appliances, light means of transport or other vehicles, with regard to which the extended producer responsibility requirements referred to in Article 56(1), (2), (3) and (4), Article 57(1) and Article 58(1), (2) and (7) are complied with.