On May 20, the Federal Cabinet passed the draft of the amendment to the Battery Law.

The draft provides for some changes relevant for battery producers, which we briefly outline below:

• The draft law reacts to the abolition of the solidarity-based joint take-back system for portable batteries (GRS) and now provides for a purely competitive model among the take-back systems. Each producer must operate or provide its own take-back system for batteries placed on the market. Members of the former GRS must now create a new take-back system, but this has generally already been done. Affected will be traders of batteries who have provided a collection point of GRS and now have to assign a new collection system. A manufacturer's own take-back is usually carried out collectively with other producers who jointly commission a third party (e.g. the known take-back systems already established on the market). The establishment of an individual take-back system by a producer is also possible, but involves considerable effort (e.g. approval of the system by stiftung ear, fulfilment of the statutory collection target, etc.).
• A second major change is the introduction of a registration obligation for producers of portable, automotive and industrial batteries (manufacturers, importers, first distributors):
  The obligation to notify the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) is replaced by an obligation for producers to register with stiftung ear. The new obligation to register will apply from 1 January 2022 to producers who are already registered with UBA. Producers bringing batteries onto the market in Germany for the first time or whose data filed with UBA are no longer current must be registered by 1 January 2021. We therefore recommend that the data be updated as soon as possible with the UBA's register of manufacturers so that you can benefit from the extended transition period.
  Further details on the new registration with stiftung ear, in particular the technical procedure, will be communicated via the stiftung ear website in September.
• Producers based abroad will in future be able to appoint an authorized representative based in Germany (comparable to the provisions of the ElektroG and Packaging Act). This authorized representative can then take over the producer obligations in Germany (e.g. registration obligation).
• The draft law also provides that from 2023 the financial contributions of producers to take-back systems are to be measured against environmental criteria (new Section 7a). This is intended to create incentives to minimize the use of hazardous substances. The durability, reusability and recyclability of portable batteries should also be taken into account when calculating the contributions. The respective contribution must be based on the individual chemical systems of portable batteries.

The new battery law is scheduled to come into force in January 2021.

We are happy to support you in implementing your manufacturer obligations for batteries.
Please get in touch: contact@1cc-compliance.co