Manufacturer identification: the regulation does not mean the factory

The manufacturer is not whoever assembled the battery

Article 3 defines the manufacturer as a person who manufactures a battery, or has a battery designed or manufactured and markets it under its own name or trademark, or puts it into service for its own purposes. A contract assembler is therefore usually not the manufacturer for the purposes of this Regulation, whatever the industry calls it. One consequence is easy to miss: this field and the place of manufacture field often name two different companies in two different countries. That is the expected result, not an error.

The field is a set of items, not a name

Article 38(7) requires the name, registered trade name or registered trade mark, the postal address indicating a single contact point and, if available, the web and email address. The single contact point is the part that fails in practice: companies print a head office, a regional sales office and a service centre, at which point there is no single point left. The details must be in a language easily understood by end-users and market surveillance authorities, as determined by the Member State, and be clear, understandable and legible.

When this field changes hands

Article 38(11) provides that economic operators carrying out preparation for re-use, preparation for repurposing, repurposing or remanufacturing, and placing the resulting battery on the market, are considered to be manufacturers. The value of this field therefore changes in a second life. An importer, by contrast, adds its own details under Article 41(3) beside the manufacturer's rather than in place of them, and must verify under Article 41(2)(d), before placing the battery on the market, that the manufacturer has complied with Article 38(6) and (7).

Why a stale address is not cosmetic

Article 83 lists, among its findings of formal non-compliance, the case where the information referred to in Article 38(7) or Article 41(3) is absent, false or incomplete. The Member State then requires the economic operator to put an end to that non-compliance, and where it persists, Article 83(2) provides for measures to restrict or prohibit the battery being made available on the market, or to have it withdrawn or recalled. An out-of-date address carries the same legal consequence as missing technical documentation.

Where it goes wrong

• Naming the contract assembler as the manufacturer because it physically built the battery.
• Three addresses on the label instead of a postal address indicating a single contact point.
• The importer's details under Article 41(3) replacing the manufacturer's — Article 41(3) adds to them, it does not substitute for them.
• A company name from before a merger or rebranding still sitting in the passport, because nobody reviews this field when the entity changes.
• A remanufactured or repurposed battery keeping the original identification, although Article 38(11) treats the operator that placed it on the market as the manufacturer.

Frequently asked