If a battery that falls under the regulation does not have a digital passport at the moment when that becomes mandatory, then that battery does not comply with one of the requirements that the regulation sets for placing on the market. The regulation itself describes that the passport is a condition alongside the other requirements for CE marking, labelling and documentation — not a separate, optional component. What a competent authority does in a specific case is not stated in the text of the regulation and is therefore not something we make a statement about here.
What is clear from the structure of the regulation is that the absence of a passport affects multiple layers: your relationship with your competent authority, your relationship with your supply chain partners, and in practice also your relationship with your own customers. We discuss these three layers separately below, so that you can assess which is most relevant for your business.
What the regulation itself sets as a requirement
The Battery Regulation links the digital passport to the placing on the market of certain batteries: EV batteries, batteries for light means of transport and industrial batteries above a certain capacity. The obligation comes into force from 18 February 2027, in 181 days. Until that date there is time to set up the process; after that date the passport should come with the battery, just as already applies to other mandatory documentation. Anyone in doubt as to whether a specific battery falls under these categories will find a first assessment in the questionnaire that provides an indication in a few minutes.
What role supervision and enforcement play
Market supervision of product legislation in the Netherlands and the EU generally does not work with fixed penalty tables that yield the same amount in each case; competent authorities look at the nature of the infringement, the context and the possibility to correct it afterwards. What the likelihood of enforcement is, how strictly it is controlled and what steps a competent authority takes in practice cannot be predicted with certainty and we therefore do not make a statement about it. For questions about your own situation, the competent authority, or a lawyer familiar with the regulation, is the appropriate party to contact.
Who else may ask for the passport
In addition to the competent authority, there are parties who practically speaking ask for the passport before an inspection: an importer who expects his supplier to have complete documentation, a distributor who needs the passport in order to act as a provider in turn, or a business customer who makes it a condition in a tender. In practice, businesses often notice the absence of a passport in the supply chain before an inspection at the door. Those who want to see how other parties in similar positions are tackling this will find in the overview per situation explanations that match the role you yourself have in the supply chain.
What this means for planning in your business
Setting up a passport takes time: collecting data from the manufacturer or your own production, attaching a QR data carrier, and arranging a hosting party that keeps the data available for ten years as the regulation requires. Those who only start with this after the deadline not only run the risk of a conversation with a competent authority, but also of delays in their own sales if customers or supply chain partners ask for the passport before you can deliver it. An early start prevents you from making decisions about data and suppliers under time pressure. Questions that come up frequently at that start are collected in the most frequently asked questions from other entrepreneurs.
Where you can check this with certainty
The text of the regulation itself, published on EUR-Lex, remains the most reliable source for what exactly applies and from when. For an explanation of your own situation — which category of batteries, which role in the chain, which deadline exactly applies to you — a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority is the appropriate party. We describe on batpas.eu what the regulation says and how the process works in practice; what that means for your specific business is for you and your advisor to determine. How we collect data and where the information on our pages comes from is explained on the page about our working method.
Would you first like to get clarity for yourself on whether, and in what form, this subject applies to your business? The free quick-scan provides an initial indication in a few questions, without you needing to create an account.