How do I record the supply of passport data in my purchasing contract?

What you need to do concretely

What is expected of you

An importer or dealer falling under the Battery Regulation is dependent, for the passport, on data originating elsewhere in the supply chain: at the cell manufacturer, battery assembly, or the supplier delivering the end product. The obligations arising from the regulation itself lie with economic operators, but what happens in practice is determined by what is stated in the purchase contract. Three elements can be distinguished here.

Supply of the correct data

Articles 38 to 44 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 describe which economic operator bears which responsibility. What is not stated there is how a supplier must supply that data, in which language, in which file format or at which point in the procurement process. For a company with 10 to 100 employees, this means that the regulation sets out the obligation, but the contract with the supplier regulates the execution. Without such an agreement, the situation arises where a supplier provides the data only after delivery, after insistence, or not at all. Which data exactly that is, is described on the page about which data you must request from your battery supplier.

Completeness in accordance with Annex XIII

Annex XIII of the regulation lists which data must be included in the battery passport. This is a long and detailed list, with technical, chemical and origin data. A supplier who sends "the specifications" does not automatically supply everything that Annex XIII requires. For a company that purchases batteries from a cell supplier, it is practically relevant to know in advance which part of that list belongs to that link in the supply chain — this is detailed on the page about which data you must request from your cell supplier. Without such a demarcation, a dispute arises afterwards about which party should have supplied which data.

Origin and due diligence obligation

For raw materials such as cobalt, lithium and graphite, a due diligence obligation applies that requires origin information from the supply chain. For an importer of batteries, this is relevant as part of the procurement discussion, not as something to be remedied afterwards. What this due diligence obligation entails is described on the page about the due diligence obligation for batteries, and specifically for the raw materials mentioned on the page about cobalt, lithium and graphite from areas of concern. A supplier who does not routinely supply this origin data is difficult for a company of limited size to query afterwards — which is why this should preferably be laid down in the contract before the first delivery takes place.

Where things go wrong in practice

The supplier provides data, but not in a usable format. A pdf with a technical data sheet is not the same as structured data that can be processed into a passport. Without an agreement on format, this problem only comes to light when the passport is already due to be assembled.

The data arrives too late. An importer orders a batch of batteries, delivery takes place, and the passport data follow "later". Without a point in the contract where supply of data is tied to delivery of goods, a gap arises between the moment the product is placed on the market and the moment the passport is complete.

Two suppliers of the same battery provide different data. When purchasing through multiple channels — for example the same cell type via different assembly batches — there is a risk that the passport differs per batch, whereas it is the same product. What to do in this case is detailed on the page about what you do if the same battery comes from different suppliers.

Data from a non-EU factory are incomplete or cannot be verified. When purchasing from a factory outside the EU, for example in China, the distance between the buyer and the place where the data originate is large, and the language and format issue is a recurring problem. Practical starting points for this can be found on the page about obtaining the correct passport data from a manufacturer in China.

Nobody checks the data before it goes into the passport. A supplier delivers a dataset, and it is adopted without verification. Inaccuracies that enter the passport this way are harder to correct afterwards than if a control point is built into the procurement procedure.

What you can record

• A list of data to be supplied per product category, based on Annex XIII of the regulation, included as an annex to the procurement contract.
• A fixed delivery format, so that data does not arrive in loose PDFs or photos of type plates. What is standard practice in this regard is described on the page on the format in which battery data must be supplied.
• A delivery moment for the passport data that is linked to the delivery moment of the batteries themselves, not to a separate, later moment.
• A contact point at the supplier that is responsible for the accuracy of the supplied data, including an agreement on how corrections are communicated.
• A provision for what happens if the data is missing or incomplete — which steps to consider in this regard are described on the page on what to do if the supplier does not provide the data.
• An agreement on raw material origin data, specifically for batteries in which cobalt, lithium or graphite is incorporated.
• A control step before data is passed on to the passport, with a fixed procedure for flagging deviations — see the page on checking data for accuracy.
• A provision for updates: what happens if a battery is later repaired or rebuilt, and who is then responsible for updating the passport. This touches on the question addressed on the page on updating data when a battery is replaced.

These components are not all equally relevant in every contract — a company that sources exclusively from one fixed supplier within the EU has a different set of focus points than a company that sources through multiple links and countries. The underlying principle remains that what is not established in the contract is left to chance in practice at the moment the passport must be compiled.