Economic operators under the Battery Regulation: who carries which duty

Chapter VI has applied since 18 August 2024

The part of the regulation that hands out the roles has been in force for years. Its title is unwieldy, which is one reason it is rarely quoted.

Chapter VI of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 is headed Obligations of economic operators other than obligations set out in Chapters VII and VIII and runs from Article 38 to Article 46. The exclusion in the title is literal: Chapter VII governs supply-chain due diligence, Chapter VIII waste batteries. Everything to do with the product itself - documentation, conformity, marking, traceability - sits in Chapter VI.

The timing is what matters. Article 96(2) applies the regulation from 18 February 2024 in general, but carves out Article 17 and the whole of Chapter VI and sets 18 August 2024 for both. Anyone importing batteries into the EU or distributing them here has been working under these rules for over two years - whether or not those batteries will ever need a passport.

The seven economic operators of the Battery Regulation

Article 3(1)(22) lists five roles and then leaves a door open. Chapter VI actually addresses seven parties - and two of them are almost never counted.

The definition of economic operator names the manufacturer, the authorised representative, the importer, the distributor and the fulfilment service provider, and adds "any other natural or legal person" carrying the relevant obligations. That clause is how the two overlooked roles arrive: suppliers of battery cells and modules (Article 39) and operators placing second-life batteries on the market again (Article 45).

Article 39 is the shortest article of the chapter and the most useful one for data collection: suppliers of cells and modules must provide the information and documentation needed to comply with the regulation, and they must provide it free of charge. Anyone currently negotiating whether material data sheets cost extra is negotiating over a statutory duty.

Article 45 is a reminder that a repurposed battery can fall into a different category than the original. Turning a vehicle battery into stationary storage places it on the market again, possibly as an industrial battery with everything that follows. More on that in battery recycling and recycled content.

Manufacturer, producer, representative: three words, two traps

The regulation uses everyday words as separate legal terms. That is a deliberate split, and it is the source of most misunderstandings.

A manufacturer under Article 3(1)(33) is a person who manufactures a battery, or has one designed or manufactured, and markets it under its own name or trademark, or puts it into service for its own purposes. That is the product responsibility of Chapter VI.

A producer under Article 3(1)(47) is something else: the extended producer responsibility role, which by definition can be a manufacturer, an importer or a distributor. Article 42(2) makes the difference visible in a single sentence. Before making a battery available, a distributor must verify both that the producer is entered in the producer register under Article 55 and, separately, that manufacturer and importer have discharged their identification duties. Two checks, two terms, one paragraph.

The second trap hides in three terms that sound like synonyms. They decide who a duty lands on:

In practice: a company that builds a battery for its own storage project and never sells it has still put it into service under Article 3(1)(18). Article 38(1) names that case explicitly - "including for its own purposes". The obligations do not disappear because no sale takes place.

Who carries which duty

The matrix is what the chapter actually says. It separates a duty you discharge from a duty you merely verify - a difference that decides liability.

The manufacturer column is the densest, because Article 38 gathers the whole conformity workload there: draw up the technical documentation of Annex VIII, carry out or have carried out the conformity assessment of Article 17, issue the EU declaration of conformity under Article 18 and affix the CE marking under Articles 19 and 20. A ten-year retention duty follows from placing on the market or putting into service.

The importer column looks lighter than it is. Article 41(2) requires four checks before placing on the market, and paragraph 5 goes further: where the importer considers it appropriate in view of the risks, it carries out sample testing of batteries placed on the market, investigates complaints, keeps a register of complaints, non-conforming batteries and recalls where necessary, and keeps distributors informed. That is a quality function, not a checklist.

The distributor column looks thin and is the underestimated one. Article 42(1) requires due care, paragraph 2 requires four checks - among them a look at the producer register under Article 55, which no other role owes - and paragraph 3 forbids making the battery available until conformity has been restored. Selling a battery without a CE marking breaches Article 42 in its own right, whoever caused the original mistake.

For the authorised representative, Article 40(2) is the paragraph to read. It takes three things out of any mandate: the obligations of Article 38(1), the due diligence duties of Articles 48 to 52, and the duty to draw up the technical documentation. A representative can therefore keep the documentation available (paragraph 3(a)) but may not create it in your place. Buying a mandate does not buy conformity.

Which documents sit behind the rows "technical documentation" and "EU declaration of conformity", and which of them become passport content in their own right, is set out in which evidence the battery passport requires.

Article 44: when a distributor becomes the manufacturer

The shortest article of the chapter is the most expensive one. It is a single sentence with three letters - and it moves the entire load.

The three conditions are joined by "or". One is enough. The common case in practice is letter (a): the own brand. A company sourcing cells or packs from a third country and selling them under its own logo is not an importer with verification duties but a manufacturer with the full conformity workload - technical documentation, conformity assessment, declaration, CE marking, ten years of retention and, from 2027, the battery passport.

The line is finer than it sounds. The FAQ of the European engine manufacturers' association EUROMOT reads Article 44(a) as leaving the duties in place where an additional logo sits next to a manufacturer that remains identified and compliant; only where the importer or distributor alone appears on the battery does letter (a) bite. That is an association reading, not a legal act - but it describes exactly the point where the decision is made in practice.

Article 77(4): the passport follows the placing on the market

For the battery passport the regulation names an act, not a role. That sounds like hair-splitting and decides in practice who is liable.

The wording is short: the economic operator that places the battery on the market must ensure that the information contained in the battery passport is accurate, complete and up to date. Read together with Article 3(1)(64) - the importer is the party that places a battery from a third country on the market - the answer follows by itself. An EU manufacturer that places its own batteries on the market owns the passport. A battery from a third country makes it the importer's. The EUROMOT FAQ reads it the same way.

For importers this is the least comfortable line in the chapter. They are liable for the accuracy of data they largely do not generate: chemistry, material composition, capacity values, dismantling information. Article 39 helps only one step, because it binds suppliers of cells and modules - not every supplier in the chain.

Article 77(7) draws the consequence for second life: for batteries prepared for re-use, prepared for repurposing, repurposed or remanufactured, the responsibility under paragraph 4 transfers to the economic operator that placed the battery on the market or put it into service. The original manufacturer is out, the repurposer is in.

When the passport becomes mandatory for which category is covered in battery passport obligation from 2027; how the passport then reaches the central EU registry is explained in registering a battery passport in the EU DPP registry.

What our product covers - and what it does not

Batteriepasswerk is battery passport software. It does not assign you a role - it carries the evidence for the role you already have.

How a data request to a supplier actually runs is shown on suppliers and supplier data. How every change stays provable is explained in audit trail and data integrity in the battery passport.

Frequent questions about economic operators

Sources & further reading