EU Lets Wearables Wriggle Out of User-Replaceable Battery Rules
The delegated act adds six product categories, including smartwatches and fitness trackers, while still requiring professional battery replacement.
- On Tuesday, The European Commission exempted wearable technology from rules requiring consumer-replaceable batteries, adding six product categories to the exemption list.
- Under the Batteries Regulation, products sold in Europe must generally have batteries removable and replaceable by consumers to extend product life and improve recycling.
- Nintendo is discontinuing the original Switch in Europe rather than complying with strict consumer-removability requirements, though batteries must remain replaceable by independent professionals.
- The change clears major hurdles for Meta smart glasses reaching Europe, Politico reports, after US Ambassador Andrew Puzder previously argued broad rules prevented sales of jointly developed US-European products.
- Smart glasses remain under privacy scrutiny as Parliament and national governments have 20 days to object to the act; more than 7 million Meta glasses sold worldwide in 2025.
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Good news for Apple about something that could become a nightmare for engineers: AirPods and Apple Watch will remain without the possibility of a removable battery
EU lets wearables wriggle out of user-replaceable battery rules
UPDATED The European Commission has watered down its rules around battery replaceability with exemptions for some wearable devices, potentially including the Apple Watch and Meta's AI Glasses. A delegated act was adopted by the European Commission on July 14 that exempted the products from EU requirements on the removability and replaceability of portable batteries. The batteries must still be replaceable, but by independent professionals rather…
EU Drops Battery Removal Requirement for Apple Watch and AirPods
The European Commission yesterday adopted new exemptions to its Batteries Regulation that free the Apple Watch and AirPods from having to offer user-removable and replaceable batteries. The EU's Batteries Regulation generally requires consumer products sold in the region to let users swap out their own batteries, a push meant to keep devices in use longer and make it easier to recover materials for recycling.
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