I sell batteries under my own brand — what obligations do I get?
Selling under your own brand makes you a manufacturer
Whoever places a battery on the market under their own name or brand is considered a manufacturer of that battery under the Battery Regulation — even if production takes place elsewhere. That is the key point: it is not who solders the cells or injects-moulds the housing that is decisive, but whose name or brand appears on the product and packaging. An importer who has e-bike batteries produced at a factory in Asia and sells them under their own brand name falls under the same obligations as a party that develops and builds the battery entirely in-house. This is a deliberate choice in the Regulation: the party that sees the market and the customer bears the responsibility, regardless of where physical production takes place.
Delimitation: whose brand counts
This manufacturer status applies to anyone who affixes their own name, brand or trademark to a battery produced by another and subsequently places that battery on the market. This affects private label sales broadly: e-bike and scooter importers that stock batteries under their own brand, battery traders that re-pack batteries, and machinery manufacturers that supply industrial batteries under their own name. It does not apply to a party that imports or resells a battery under the brand of the original manufacturer without making any changes — they receive the obligations of an importer or distributor, which are structured differently from those of a manufacturer. A pure reseller that only provides logistics and sales without affixing their own brand also falls outside this specific manufacturer status. The distinction therefore does not lie in who generates the turnover, but in whose brand the customer sees on the product.
When this comes into force
For the digital product passport itself, a date is fixed: it is mandatory as of 18 February 2027, regulated in Article 77 of the Battery Regulation. The obligations of market participants from Articles 38 to 44 — including the manufacturer status when selling under your own brand — stem from a Regulation that has already entered into force, but the sources used here do not mention a separate entry-into-force date specifically for those Articles. Whoever wants to know the exact moment when an individual obligation from that block comes into force will find that in the official text of the Regulation itself. What is certain: by the time the product passport becomes mandatory, the question of who fulfils which role — manufacturer, importer or distributor — must already be answered, because that role determines who must have the passport drawn up and maintained.
What this means in practice
The first step is to check whether your own brand or your own name will appear on the battery or packaging — if so, the manufacturer role applies, even if production is external. Next, it is important to request the technical documentation and conformity data from the actual producer, because the manufacturer (i.e. the brand holder) must be able to present this substantiation to supervisory authorities themselves, not just the factory that supplies the cells. This is followed by the question of which data are needed for CE marking, registration and — once applicable — the digital product passport: chemical composition, origin of materials, performance data and instructions for use and end-of-life fall within this. Whoever is established outside the EU but sells on the European market under their own brand should check whether an authorised representative within the EU is required. Practically speaking, this means that the supplier agreement with the actual producer must clearly define who provides and maintains which documentation, because that documentation is precisely what is needed to populate the product passport and to comply with the obligations under Articles 38 to 44.
Where this is derived from: Articles 38 to 44
The obligations of economic operators, including the principle that whoever places a battery on the market under their own name or brand is deemed a manufacturer, are set out in Articles 38 to 44 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542. These articles divide responsibilities between manufacturer, importer, distributor and authorised representative, and it is this allocation that determines which concrete obligations apply to which party.
Whoever sells batteries under their own brand is well advised to now clarify their own position in the supply chain, ensure that arrangements with the actual producer regarding documentation are in order, and obtain the official text of Articles 38 to 44 to see which obligation specifically applies to the manufacturer role.
What this is based on
The Regulation itself is on EUR-Lex. We refer for each statement; you need not believe us.
What you need to do concretely
What is expected of you
Putting a battery on the market under its own brand changes the legal position of a company. If a company sources a battery from another manufacturer and puts its own name or brand on it, it thereby becomes a manufacturer within the meaning of the battery regulation — even if the company has not tightened a single screw. This is one of the situations detailed on the page Am I an importer or manufacturer according to the battery regulation?, and it is the starting point for everything that follows: the obligations of articles 38 to 44 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 are written for "the manufacturer", and that designation then rests with the brand owner, not with the factory that produced the cells.
Ensuring the battery meets the requirements
The obligation to ensure that the battery meets the requirements of the regulation rests with the party bearing the brand, even when design and production are outsourced. For a company with 10 to 100 employees, this means that adequate technical knowledge of the battery, or access to such knowledge at the factory, must be in place — not to conduct testing itself, but to be able to assess whether what the factory supplies actually meets what the regulation requires.
Conformity assessment and CE marking
The battery under its own brand must have a conformity assessment and CE marking that are in the name of the brand owner, not in the name of the original factory. What exactly this entails and how the declaration is structured is described on the page about declaration of conformity and CE marking. In practice, this means that documentation coming from the factory must be transferred or reconfirmed in the name of the brand that actually places the battery on the market.
Keeping technical documentation
The technical documentation and the declaration of conformity must be kept in such a way that they can be retrieved. For a company of this size, this is often less a technical question than an archival one: where are the factory's documents located, who received them, and can they still be found if the contact person at the factory has left or the cooperation has ended.
Name, brand and contact details on the battery
On the battery, or on the packaging if that is not possible, the name, registered trade name or brand and contact details of the manufacturer must appear. If sold under private label, this is the company itself — not the underlying factory. This may seem like a minor administrative step, but it affects labeling, packaging and sometimes also the manual, and must therefore be coordinated with the factory early in the process, not afterwards.
Registration as a producer
Acting as a manufacturer also entails the registration obligation associated with placing batteries on the market. What this registration entails and where it must take place is set out on the page Must I register as a battery producer, and where?. This directly relates to broader producer responsibility: whoever sells under its own brand also bears the responsibilities that come with it, as described on the page on extended producer responsibility.
The battery passport
For a battery sold under a private label, responsibility for the digital product passport rests with the brand placing the battery on the market. The underlying factory usually provides the technical data, but assembling, correctly linking to the product and maintaining the passport is a task that aligns with the manufacturer role. Which party within a supply chain bears that role exactly is further explained on the page Who is responsible for the battery passport?.
Where things go wrong in practice
A common situation is that a company thinks "we are just the seller, the factory abroad is responsible for the paperwork" — while their own brand appears on the battery and they have thus assumed the manufacturer role, with all the obligations that entails.
A second situation: the factory provides a declaration of conformity in its own name, and this is passed on to the customer without modification. However, the declaration should be issued in the name of the party that actually places the battery on the market under its own brand.
A third situation arises when changing suppliers. A company switches to a different factory for the same product line, but the technical documentation and test results from the old factory are not transferred or archived, while the own brand remains responsible for the batteries already sold.
A fourth situation occurs with sales through multiple channels: the same battery under own brand is also offered via a marketplace, whereby additional points of attention apply that are detailed on the page What does the battery regulation mean if I sell via an online marketplace? — a question that is often overlooked because attention is mainly focused on the own webshop or own sales outlet.
A fifth situation: a company assumes that a distributor in the supply chain will handle the obligations, while the role of distributor is fundamentally different and more limited than that of manufacturer. The difference between them is described on the page What obligations does a distributor of batteries have?, and it is a difference that matters in practice: carrying your own brand does not mean that another part of the chain assumes that responsibility.
What you can record
- A written agreement with the factory about which party supplies which technical documentation, in which language and at what point in time — before the first delivery, not after.
- The declaration of conformity, drawn up or adapted in the name of the own brand, with a fixed location where it is kept and remains findable.
- An overview of the contact details that must appear on the battery or packaging, checked with every new production run or supplier change.
- A registration file documenting when and where registration as a producer took place, including any changes when changing suppliers.
- A fixed contact point or process for submitting data for the battery passport, so that with every new or modified product line it is clear who supplies which data.
- An archive of previous technical documentation from factories with which cooperation has ceased, so that it remains retrievable for batteries already sold under the own brand.
This is not legal advice. This page provides general information about the legislation that this platform covers. We do not know your situation. If in doubt about your own case, consult a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority.
Written with AI based on the sources above, checked by a human on 2026-08-22. Is something wrong? Let us know — corrections take priority.