On 11 July 2025, the German Federal Council (Bundesrat) issued a statement on the EU Batteries Regulation Adaptation Act (Batt-EU-AnpG). As reported by Euwid, the demand formulated by the Environment Committee to introduce a deposit requirement for lithium-ion batteries did not receive a majority in the Bundesrat. Instead, the Federal Council stated in its opinion: Against this background, the Federal Council asks the Federal Government to examine effective, cost-efficient and bureaucracy-free measures within the framework of extended producer responsibility to promote the proper disposal of lithium-ion device batteries and, as a result, to improve the safety of disposal facilities. The review should also include a deposit solution for certain lithium-ion batteries. A motion tabled by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia at short notice replaced the original recommendation, which was significantly more far-reaching. Other aspects include:
- The Economic Committee was unsuccessful with its proposals to ease the burden on sellers by granting exemptions from certain take-back and monitoring obligations.
- The general take-back obligation for sellers remains in place, including for damaged batteries.
- The idea of exempting online platforms from the obligation to check producer registration was rejected.
- The proposal to transfer responsibility for notification from the federal states to the federal government in future was met with approval.
- The Federal Council is calling for trademark registration pursuant to Section 5 to no longer be a mandatory part of registration in order to take account of the fact that there are many no-name products in the battery sector and that Germany is the only country in Europe with this regulation.
It is to be feared that the Battery Law EU Adaptation Act (Batt-EU-AnpG), which is to replace the Battery Act (BattG) with the Battery Law Implementation Act (BattDG) (take-e-way reported: Battery Act expires), will not come into force on 18 August 2025 as planned, as the Bundestag's Environment Committee has postponed the public hearing on the draft bill by the CDU/CSU and SPD parliamentary groups to adapt battery law to Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 (Batterierecht-EU-Anpassungsgesetz / Batt-EU-AnpG) has only been scheduled for 3 September 2025. The adoption of the new BattDG would therefore be more realistic in October or November.
Questions about battery registration? The take-e-way consulting team will be happy to assist you via +49/40/750687-0 or send us an email.
