Transfer of Responsibility on Resale of a Battery

Transfer of responsibility on resale is decided by the roles that the Regulation assigns to economic operators, not by a private agreement alone. A manufacturer, an importer, a distributor and a later holder each carry duties that attach to their role, and a sale changes who holds the battery without automatically rewriting which duties attach to which role. A contract can allocate tasks and costs between parties, but a reader should not assume that a contract term by itself moves a regulatory duty from one operator to another, because the Regulation addresses duties to operators by role and by the act of placing on the market or making available.

The scope is the operator duties in Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, read with the passport duty in Article 77 for electric vehicle batteries, light means of transport batteries and industrial batteries over 2 kWh from 18 February 2027. The guide covers resale of a battery that has already been placed on the market, not first placing on the market, and the position is stated as checked on 28 October 2026. No conclusion is stated about any particular contract.

Who carries the passport duty after a resale?

The passport duty in Article 77 attaches to the battery placed on the market or put into service, and the economic operator responsible for placing the battery on the market carries the duty to ensure that the passport exists and is accurate. A later resale does not create a new first placing, and a reseller does not automatically become the operator who placed the battery on the market. The reseller does carry duties that attach to making a battery available, including duties that apply to distributors and other operators in the chain, and those duties need to be read separately from the passport creation duty. The distinction prevents two errors, namely assuming that resale restarts the passport duty, and assuming that resale carries no duty at all.

What duties stay with the original operator?

Duties that stay with the original operator include the accuracy of the model information and the individual information recorded at first placing, and the responsibility for the record that was created at that point. Later holders cannot rewrite history, and an error in the original entries remains an error in the original record even after several resales. The original operator also remains the reference point for questions about the first placing, including the date, the model and the conformity information that the passport summarises. Later holders add later entries, but the addition of later entries does not transfer authorship of the earlier entries, and a later reader should be able to tell which entries came from which stage.

What duties does a reseller take on?

A reseller takes on the duties that attach to the reseller role, including verifying identity and record consistency before making the battery available, preserving the record link, and recording the transfer in a way that a later reader can follow. Where the reseller prepares a waste battery for reuse or repurposing, Article 73 adds documentation duties, including state of health evidence and an invoice or contract documenting further use. Where the reseller refurbishes or remanufactures a battery, the status change and the work done need to be recorded, because a later operator who treats a refurbished battery as an original battery will misread both capability and history. The reseller duties are practical and documentary, and they are distinct from the original passport creation duty.

What does a responsibility transfer table look like?

A responsibility table separates the role, the act and the duty, so that a sale is not mistaken for a transfer of every duty. The table below uses the roles named in the Regulation in general terms, and the rows describe the kind of duty that attaches to each role rather than a complete list of duties for that role. A complete duty list for a specific operator needs the Regulation text for that role.

How do contracts fit with regulatory responsibility?

Contracts fit by allocating tasks, information and costs between the parties, and by recording what each party promised to do, while the regulatory duty itself is read from the Regulation. A contract can require a seller to provide the record, to update an entry, to supply test evidence or to cooperate with a later correction, and those promises are enforceable between the parties on contract principles. A contract cannot be assumed to change the position of an authority or a later third party who reads the Regulation, and a buyer who relies only on a contract promise without checking the record itself carries a risk if the promise is not performed. The prudent file therefore contains both the contract and the record reading, kept together.

What happens when a battery is prepared for reuse or repurposing on resale?

When a waste battery is prepared for reuse or repurposing, the battery holder must be able to demonstrate, on request by a competent authority, evidence of a state of health evaluation or testing, documentation of further use by invoice or contract, and evidence of appropriate protection during transport, loading and unloading, as Article 73 provides. That demonstration is a condition for documenting that the battery is no longer waste, and it sits alongside the passport record rather than replacing it. A resale that involves preparation for reuse or repurposing therefore needs both the passport reading and the Article 73 documentation, and a file that contains only one of the two is incomplete for that kind of resale.

What limits apply to responsibility on resale?

The limits are that this guide describes roles in general terms and does not decide the position for any particular operator, contract or Member State. This guide gives general educational information only and is not individual legal advice. An operator with a specific resale should check the Regulation text and any applicable national rules as checked on 28 October 2026 before acting.