What is changing this year is mainly happening behind the scenes: EU countries are organizing their supervision for the moment when the Battery Regulation becomes fully applicable. This means that supervisory authorities are being designated, powers are being laid down, and systems are being tested, before any actual inspection takes place. As an entrepreneur, nothing changes for you this year in terms of enforcement itself, but the way it is being prepared will change.
The Regulation lays down that market supervision must take place and which tasks are involved, but leaves it to the Member States how they organize it. The Netherlands and other EU countries are working on implementing this this year: who the supervisory authority will be, how it cooperates with customs and other bodies, and what information a company must be able to provide during an inspection. Some of this is now settled, some is not.
What is becoming concrete this year
In the run-up to the requirement, technical standards are being finalized at EU level: the precise form of the QR code, the way in which data are exchanged, and the requirements for the systems that host the passport. This is not a legal change in the Regulation itself, but rather in its practical implementation. Software suppliers and platforms such as batpas.eu follow those standards, so that a passport will then also be technically aligned with what supervisory authorities expect.
In addition, supervisory authorities in different Member States are working on their own procedures: how often they inspect, which signals they respond to, and with which other government services they exchange information. This is relevant because the picture that sometimes emerges — one European supervisory authority with one approach — is not correct. Each country organizes this itself, within the framework of the Regulation.
What is not yet certain
On a number of points, implementation is still in flux. How strictly a supervisory authority acts on a first violation, which priorities are set, and how inspections will look in practice: this is not yet settled and will probably also differ between Member States. Supervisory authorities typically publish concrete information about this only when they have completed their own preparation. For the current status of this, the website of the competent supervisory authority is the first place to look, not an article like this.
It is therefore not possible — and not wise — to estimate now how strictly or how quickly inspections will be carried out. What can be said is: the Regulation gives supervisory authorities the power to request data and to check whether a passport is present and correct. They are preparing for this this year.
Why this is relevant for you, even if enforcement is not yet taking place
For companies that place batteries on the market, lease or process them, the preparation phase is not only a matter for supervisory authorities. The systems and standards being established now also determine what your own passport should look like and which data must be included in it. Companies that now check what role they have in the chain and which data are already available will not have to do that under time pressure later.
In the knowledge base with topics per situation is explained per theme what is already settled in the Regulation and what is still being developed, with a reference to the official text. That distinction is particularly important this year: not everything that appears in the news about batteries and supervision is already definitive.
The question of which supervisory authority in the Netherlands will ultimately be responsible and how it will operate is also covered in the frequently asked questions about the battery passport. This tracks what is known, without anticipating matters that have not yet been settled.
What you can do with it now
It makes little sense to wait until supervisory authorities have fully published their working methods. More practical is to determine now which batteries in your assortment will fall under the obligation, what data is required for that, and who in your supply chain can provide that data. How that data is collected and why certain information is needed is explained on the page how batpas.eu collects the data for a digital product passport.
If you do not yet know where your own business stands, there is no need to spend much time investigating. With the product scan that gives a first indication in a few questions it quickly becomes clear whether, and to what extent, the regulation applies to your situation. For assessing your specific situation, a legal advisor or the competent supervisory authority remains the appropriate party.
So this year, things change mainly in the preparation phase, not in the daily operations of your business. That makes it a good time to calmly, without time pressure, consider what will be required of you — rather than reacting only once supervision actually begins.