Importer duties: checking conformity, identity and passport data before a battery enters the Union market

An importer is a person established in the Union who places a battery from a third country on the Union market. Article 41 sets out the obligations of importers. The importer role is a gatekeeper role: the importer is the first Union actor in the chain for an imported battery, and the importer must verify, before placing, that the manufacturer has carried out the conformity assessment, drawn up the technical documentation and the declaration, affixed the required marking, and provided the required information.

The importer must also ensure that the battery bears the importer identification, and must keep the declaration and technical documentation available. A passport record for an imported battery is only as reliable as the importer check that stands behind it.

What must an importer check before placing?

Before placing, an importer must check that the battery conforms to the applicable requirements, that the manufacturer has drawn up technical documentation and carried out the conformity assessment, that the battery bears the CE marking and the required labelling, and that the battery is accompanied by the required instructions and safety information. The check is a verification check, not a repeat of the conformity assessment. The importer inspects the declaration, the marking, the labelling and the accompanying information, and obtains the technical documentation where the Regulation requires it to be kept available. An importer who places a battery on the basis of a supplier assurance, without inspecting the declaration and the marking, has not performed the check. A passport record that shows a carbon figure, a recycled share or a performance value for an imported battery should be traceable to a declaration and documentation that the importer has actually seen.

What identification must an importer add?

An importer must indicate its name, registered trade name or trade mark, postal address and, where available, a single contact point on the battery, or, where that is not possible, on packaging or in accompanying documentation. Importer identification is separate from manufacturer identification. Both appear in the information set for the battery, and the passport record should allow a reader to distinguish them. A reader who sees only an importer name and mistakes it for the manufacturer will direct enquiries, complaints and authority requests to the wrong person. A reader who sees only a manufacturer name and cannot identify the importer will struggle to establish the Union actor responsible for the placing. The record and the marking together should make both identities clear, with the role of each stated.

How do importer duties affect the passport?

The importer is the economic operator placing the imported battery on the market, and passport responsibility follows the placing operator where the Regulation so provides. The importer must therefore ensure that the passport record exists for batteries within Article 77, that the model and unit data are accurate for the batteries imported, and that the record is accessible through the data carrier. The importer does not originate design or test data, but the importer must not place a battery whose passport data is missing, mismatched or unverifiable. Where the manufacturer provides passport data, the importer checks identity match, model match, declaration match and carrier resolution before placing. Where the manufacturer does not provide the data, the importer must obtain it or must not place the battery. Placing first and obtaining data later reverses the order that Article 41 requires.

What must an importer do after placing?

After placing, an importer must keep a copy of the declaration of conformity and ensure that technical documentation can be made available to authorities, must take corrective action where a battery is found not to conform, and must cooperate with market surveillance authorities. The importer must keep a register of complaints, non conforming batteries and recalls where the Regulation or the applicable product rules require it, and must inform distributors where corrective action affects batteries already supplied. For the passport, the importer must ensure that corrections to model data are reflected in the record for units imported, and that unit history can be appended where the system provides for it. An importer who has ceased importing a model does not cease to be responsible for the units already placed, and the record and documentation retention duties continue for the required period.

What errors appear in importer records?

Common errors include importer identification missing or confused with manufacturer identification, declaration inspected for one model and relied on for another, marking checked on packaging and assumed to be present on the battery, and passport data accepted from a supplier portal without checking carrier resolution. A further error is the assumption that a battery that bears a CE marking is necessarily compliant. CE marking is one element of conformity, and the importer check covers the declaration, the documentation, the marking and the information set together. The table below summarises the check.

What limits apply to importer claims?

An importer check proves that the importer inspected the stated evidence before placing. It does not prove that the underlying design, testing or calculations were correct. Those questions belong to the conformity assessment and to authority inspection. This guide gives general educational information only and does not give legal advice for a particular importer, battery or transaction.