Batteries may no longer be firmly glued in the EU.
The EU Parliament has passed a new battery directive that primarily affects smartphones. From 2027, manufacturers will no longer be allowed to use permanently bonded batteries. The goal is improved environmental and consumer protection.
Smartphones: EU bans glued batteries
The end of sticky batteries in electronic devices is approaching. The EU Parliament voted 587 to 9 a revised battery directive agreed. This should make it much easier for consumers to replace batteries. Smartphone manufacturers in particular will have to change their production in the future if they want to continue selling their cell phones in the EU.
Specifically, the new battery directive states that batteries must be easy to remove. That means: Adhesive must be avoided. Nor do consumers need to use special tools or solvents to remove a battery from a cell phone. In principle, exceptions are only provided for medical apparatus and devices that are mainly used in wet environments.
According to an earlier EU directive, manufacturers still offered a loophole. Gluing batteries was allowed if the cell phone had a remaining capacity of at least 83 percent after 500 charging processes. Manufacturers have been given a long period of time to switch to non-adhesive batteries. The new guideline should not take effect until the beginning of 2027 (source: golem.de).
With the Fairphone 4, the battery can already be easily replaced today:
EU: Strict regulations for old batteries
The EU also has stricter targets for the collection of old batteries fixed. By 2030, 73 percent of device batteries and 61 percent of batteries from means of transport such as electric scooters should be collected. There are also recovery targets for materials such as lithium, cobalt, copper, lead and nickel. The EU aims to recover 95 percent of these materials by 2031.