When a battery manufacturer sits outside the EU, the question of who holds legal responsibility for the Digital Product Passport does not resolve itself automatically. Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 sets out a clear chain of accountability across Articles 38 to 44, and battery passport importer responsibility is one of the most consequential links in that chain. This article explains who carries each obligation, in what order, and what happens when the chain has gaps.
Why the Manufacturer’s Location Changes Everything
Article 38 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 makes the manufacturer the primary responsible party for placing a compliant battery on the EU market. That includes ensuring the battery passport exists, contains the required information, and meets the technical requirements set out elsewhere in the regulation.
The complication arises when the manufacturer is not established in the EU. A manufacturer based in South Korea, China, or the United States cannot be directly regulated under EU law in the same way as one with a registered address in a member state. The regulation addresses this through a structured fallback system, moving responsibility down the chain until it lands on an operator who is physically present in the EU market.
Step One: The Authorised Representative (Article 40)
Article 40 allows a non-EU manufacturer to designate an authorised representative: a legal or natural person established in the EU who acts on the manufacturer’s behalf. The manufacturer must give this designation in writing, and the authorised representative must be named in the battery passport.
Once designated, the authorised representative takes on the manufacturer’s obligations under the regulation, including responsibility for the battery passport. This is not a light administrative role. The authorised representative must be able to demonstrate compliance to market surveillance authorities and must have access to the documentation needed to do so.
The practical implication for manufacturers outside the EU is straightforward: if you want control over how your battery passport is managed in the EU market, appoint an authorised representative before your products enter that market. Without one, you lose that control entirely, and responsibility shifts to whoever imports the battery.
Battery Passport Importer Responsibility: What Article 41 Requires
If no authorised representative has been designated, battery passport importer responsibility activates under Article 41. The importer, defined as any natural or legal person established in the EU who places a battery from a third country on the EU market, becomes responsible for ensuring the battery has a compliant passport.
Article 41 does not give importers a passive role. They must verify, before placing the battery on the market, that the manufacturer has fulfilled its obligations. Where the manufacturer has not done so, the importer cannot simply proceed and hope for the best. The importer must either ensure compliance is achieved or refrain from placing the battery on the market.
Specifically in relation to the battery passport, the importer must check that the passport exists, that it contains the information required under Article 77 and the relevant annexes, and that the QR code required by Article 13(6) is present and readable on the product. If the manufacturer has provided a passport that is incomplete or inaccessible, the importer carries the legal exposure.
Importers must also keep a copy of the declaration of conformity for ten years after the battery has been placed on the market, and they must make it available to market surveillance authorities on request. This record-keeping obligation runs alongside the passport obligation, not instead of it.
What Distributors Must Do (Article 42)
Distributors sit further down the chain, but they are not exempt from obligations. Article 42 requires distributors to verify that a compliant battery passport exists and is accessible before making the battery available on the market. They must also check that the QR code required by Article 13(6) is present and readable on the product.
A distributor who discovers that a battery does not have a compliant passport must not make it available on the market. They must inform the importer or manufacturer and, where necessary, the relevant market surveillance authority.
Distributors are not required to create or maintain the passport themselves. Their obligation is verification and, where problems are found, escalation. This is a meaningful distinction: a distributor who checks and finds nothing wrong has met its obligation. A distributor who skips the check and later sells a non-compliant battery has not.
Keeping the Passport Accurate After Placement: Article 77(4)
Placing a compliant passport on the market is not the end of the obligation. Article 77(4) places the duty to keep battery passport information accurate, complete, and up to date on the economic operator placing the battery on the market.
This matters because battery data changes over time. State of health, remaining capacity, and second-life suitability assessments may all need updating as the battery moves through its life cycle. The operator responsible under Article 77(4) must ensure those updates happen.
The regulation does allow for delegation. That operator may give written authorisation to another operator to act on its behalf for the purpose of updating the passport. However, written authorisation does not transfer the underlying legal obligation. Each party in the chain retains its own obligations under the regulation. An ordinary commercial contract that says “the supplier will handle the passport” does not shift the legal liability from the importer or authorised representative to the supplier. If the supplier fails to update the passport, the responsible operator under Article 77(4) remains exposed.
This is a point that catches many importers off guard. They assume that because their supplier in China or Taiwan “owns” the product data, the supplier also owns the compliance obligation. Under EU law, that assumption is wrong.
How the Chain Works in Practice
Consider a battery cell manufactured in Japan, imported into Germany by a trading company, and then sold through a distributor to an industrial equipment manufacturer in Poland. The Japanese manufacturer has not appointed an authorised representative.
In this scenario, battery passport importer responsibility falls on the German trading company under Article 41. The trading company must ensure the passport exists and is compliant before the battery enters the EU market. The Polish distributor must verify the passport is accessible and the QR code is readable before making the battery available. The industrial equipment manufacturer, if it then places the battery into a product it puts on the market, may itself become an economic operator with its own obligations depending on how the regulation applies to that downstream product.
If the German trading company relies on the Japanese manufacturer to provide passport data and the manufacturer provides incomplete data, the trading company cannot use that as a defence. The obligation is on the trading company to ensure compliance, not merely to pass on whatever the manufacturer provides.
What Information Must the Passport Contain?
The battery passport must contain the information specified in Annex XIII of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542. Annex XIII organises access to passport data into four tiers. Point 1 covers information accessible to the general public, including general battery information referenced in Annex VI Part A. Point 2 covers information accessible to persons with a legitimate interest and to the Commission. Point 3 covers information accessible to notified bodies and market surveillance authorities. Point 4 covers individual battery data accessible to persons with a legitimate interest.
The European Commission has published guidance enumerating 71 data points in total, of which 51 are mandatory and required at the February 2027 deadline for electric vehicle batteries, 54 for light means of transport batteries, and 36 for industrial batteries above 2 kWh. These figures come from Commission guidance and apply to the data points as defined in that guidance. The February 2027 date applies to EV batteries; the dates for other battery categories are expected around 2027 to 2028, pending the adoption of the relevant ESPR delegated acts, and are not yet confirmed.
For a detailed breakdown of how these obligations interact with the technical requirements of the regulation, see this overview of EU Battery Regulation 2023/1542: economic operator obligations.
Common Misunderstandings About Who Is Responsible
Several misconceptions appear regularly among importers and distributors trying to understand their position.
- Misconception 1: The manufacturer always owns the passport obligation. Not if the manufacturer is outside the EU and has not appointed an authorised representative. In that case, the importer owns it under Article 41.
- Misconception 2: A commercial contract can transfer the legal obligation. It cannot. Article 77(4) is clear that written authorisation allows another operator to act on behalf of the responsible operator, but the obligation itself stays with the responsible operator.
- Misconception 3: Distributors have no obligations. Article 42 requires distributors to verify passport existence and accessibility, and to check the QR code under Article 13(6), before making a battery available on the market.
- Misconception 4: The passport only needs to be correct at the point of sale. Article 77(4) requires the responsible operator to keep the information accurate, complete, and up to date throughout the battery’s life cycle.
Steps to Take Now
- Identify every battery you place on the EU market and determine whether the manufacturer is established in the EU.
- For each non-EU manufacturer, check whether an authorised representative has been designated under Article 40. If not, your company carries the Article 41 importer obligation.
- Audit the battery passport data you currently receive from suppliers against the Annex XIII requirements and the Commission’s 71 data point enumeration.
- If you give written authorisation to a supplier or third party to maintain the passport under Article 77(4), document that authorisation formally and put monitoring in place. Remember: the obligation does not transfer.
- Train your distribution team on the Article 42 verification requirement so they check passport accessibility and QR code readability before each product is made available on the market.
If you are ready to map your supply chain against these obligations and build a compliant battery passport, visit traceable.digital/pricing to start a free trial. Traceable gives you the tools to track data point completion, manage authorisation records, and prepare for market surveillance audits.
