Data, access and durability
A passport starts with one item and ends when it is recycled
Only the EU battery law writes these rules. A repair keeps the passport, a repurposed battery gets a new one, and a recycler ends it.
A battery passport belongs to one physical battery. A repaired battery keeps its passport, repurposing moves the duty to a new operator who creates a new passport, and recycling alone ends it. Only the EU battery regulation, in force today, contains those rules. Its passport duty applies from 18 February 2027.
If you export an e-bike battery and you build one record for the model, that record cannot carry the condition of one battery. Your EU importer then cannot meet Article 77 on the date it applies.
Only the battery regulation writes these rules today
The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) came into force on 18 July 2024. It sets no passport duty for a product group until a delegated act covers that group. As at August 2026 the European Commission has adopted no such act for any group.
So no ESPR rule tells you what a repair or a resale does to a passport.
The battery regulation is in force today. The table below gives the instrument and the date.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Instrument | Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 |
| Status | In force |
| Article that sets the passport duty | Article 77 |
| Date the duty applies from | 18 February 2027 |
Three categories carry that duty:
- each light means of transport (LMT) battery, such as an e-bike battery
- each industrial battery with a capacity greater than 2 kilowatt hours
- each electric vehicle battery
Warning: some guidance calls this a rule for large batteries. A Commission news item of 20 July 2026 uses that phrase itself. The phrase is loose, and an e-bike battery is not large. Read the three categories above instead.
The Commission web page on digital product passports writes "certain types of batteries, including". That list is open, and the three categories close it. See batteries for the scope test and the battery regulation for the instrument.
The passport belongs to one battery, and not to one model
Article 77(3) requires a unique identifier for each battery. One passport thus belongs to one physical item, and it stays with that item after the first sale.
That single rule decides the rest of this page. A record built for a model cannot say which cell a repairer replaced, or what the state of health of one battery is today.
One person usually owns the item that carries such a record. A legal question follows, because the record may then be data about that person. See personal data in a passport.
A repair keeps the same passport, and a repurposed battery gets a new one
Each row below is part of the same Article 77 duty.
| Event | What happens to the passport | Where it is written |
|---|---|---|
| A repair, such as a new cell | The same battery keeps the same passport | Not written. Article 77(7) does not name repair. |
| Re-use, repurposing or remanufacture | A new operator creates a new passport and carries the duty | Article 77(7) |
| The battery becomes waste | The duty transfers in the same way | Article 77(7) |
| A recycler recycles the battery | The passport ceases to exist | Article 77(8) |
| The responsible operator closes | The passport stays available | Article 78(e) |
A second-hand sale is not in that table. Article 77(7) names re-use as a transfer event. This site has not confirmed how that word applies to a sale between two owners. Do not plan a private resale as a transfer of your duty.
A repurposed battery gets a new passport, and a new responsible operator
Article 77(7) requires a new passport for a repurposed battery. It is the only route in the regulation that moves responsibility to another operator, and it covers re-use, repurposing, remanufacture and waste status.
Take an electric vehicle battery that comes out of a van in Germany. A company builds it into a solar storage unit. That company creates a new passport, and it then answers for the accuracy of the data in it.
Written authorisation under Article 77(4) does not do the same thing. An operator may authorise another operator to act on its behalf, and the responsibility stays where it was. See who is the economic operator.
A recycler ends the passport, and a closed company does not
Article 77(8) says that the passport:
shall cease to exist after the battery has been recycled
Recycling is the only event in Article 77 that ends a passport.
Compare that with Article 78(e). It requires the battery passport to remain available after the responsible operator ceases to exist, or ceases its activity in the Union. Cite that point as Article 78(e). Article 78 has lettered points and no numbered paragraphs, so Article 78(5) does not exist.
Read the two rules together. A company failure does not end a passport, and a recycler does. See what happens if the company closes and how long a passport lasts.
The rules follow the object, because the readers come after the first sale
ESPR names the people who read a passport. They are customers, repairers, refurbishers, remanufacturers, recyclers, market surveillance authorities and customs authorities. Each group gets a different subset of the data, free of charge.
Those people meet a product years after somebody sold it. A repairer opens an e-bike battery long after the sale. A recycler receives the same battery years later again. A record that stops at the sale gives both of them nothing.
That is why the battery rules attach to the physical object and not to the product line. See updating a passport after sale.
A repairer must be able to read the data, and the access test is not settled
Warning: confirm the position yourself before you build access control for that group of readers.
Article 77(2)(c) gives a person with a legitimate interest two parts of Annex XIII. That interest is tied to a purpose, and the law names the purposes. The table below gives each part.
| Annex XIII part | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Point 2 | The detailed composition, the part numbers, the spare part contacts, the dismantling information and the safety measures |
| Point 4 | The item-level condition values, the state of health, the status of the battery and the data from its use |
Article 77(9) requires the Commission to adopt implementing acts by 18 August 2026. Those acts must say who counts as a person with a legitimate interest. They must also say what that person may download, share, publish and re-use.
This site searched for those acts on 15 August 2026 and found none.
See who can see what, what a recycler or a repairer gets and public data versus legitimate interest.
This site does not know if ESPR groups will copy the pattern
No delegated act exists for any ESPR product group, so no ESPR group has a lifecycle rule yet. The table below gives two ESPR rules, and neither one settles the question.
| ESPR rule | What it says |
|---|---|
| Article 10(1)(f) | The passport sits at model, batch or item level, as the delegated act specifies |
| Article 11(d) | A new passport for a product that already has one must link to the original passport |
Read the first row against the battery position. A battery passport is always at item level. An ESPR passport may sit at model level, and a model-level passport cannot follow one merino jumper through a repair.
The second row shows that ESPR expects one passport to succeed another. It does not say which events create the new one. That answer waits for each delegated act.
So treat the battery pattern as a pattern to learn, and not as a forecast for your product group.
Give each battery its own identifier, not a model code
- Check each battery you export against the three categories above.
- Give each individual battery its own identifier. Do not use a model code.
- Record the state of health of each battery at the date of sale.
- Ask your EU importer who writes a lifecycle event into the passport.
- Ask the same importer who answers a repairer or a recycler.
- Write both answers into your supply agreement. Name one person on each side.
Steps 4 to 6 belong in the contract, not in a system. See agreeing data duties with your EU importer.
If you export a merino jumper or a carton of wine, no EU passport rule applies to your product today. Your buyer can still ask you the same data question. See what this means for New Zealand exporters.