Batteries Act Section 9 Distributor obligations

Batteries Act Section 9 Distributor obligations

(1) Each distributor shall be required to take back waste batteries from end-users at no charge at or in the immediate vicinity of the point of sale. The take-back obligation specified in sentence 1 shall be restricted to waste batteries of the same type as new batteries carried at any time by the distributor as part of its product range and to the quantities that end-users normally discard. Sentence 1 shall not apply to products incorporating waste batteries; it shall apply without prejudice to the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act and without prejudice to the End-of-Life Vehicles Ordinance. In mail order operations, the point of sale for the purposes of sentence 1 shall be the dispatch warehouse.

(2) Each distributor under paragraph (1) shall be required to allow the Joint Collection Scheme to collect the waste portable batteries that the distributor takes back. As an alternative to sentence 1, a distributor may, for a period of at least one calendar year in each instance, enter into a binding commitment to withdraw from collection by the Joint Collection Scheme and instead give the waste portable batteries that the distributor takes back to one or more producer-specific collection schemes. The Joint Collection Scheme shall be given written notice of such withdrawal at least three months before the beginning of the period concerned.

(3) Insofar as a distributor does not take up the producers’ offer under Section 8 (1) and either recycles waste automotive or industrial batteries itself or delivers them to third parties for recycling, the distributor shall ensure compliance with the requirements under Section 14. If a distributor delivers waste automotive or industrial batteries to a commercial battery waste management company or public waste management authority for recycling, the requirements under Section 14 shall be deemed to be complied with in respect of the distributor.

(4) A distributor shall not show separately the costs of collection, sorting, recycling and disposal of waste portable batteries to end-users at the time of sale of new portable batteries.