Scope

All types of batteries are in scope of the BattG, regardless of shape, size, mass, material composition, or utilisation. BattG also applies to batteries that are incorporated into other products, or are added to other products. 

Batteries are sources consisting of electrical energy from one or several, non-rechargable primary cells, or of rechargeable secondary cells, that are generated by immediate conversion of chemical energy (§ 2 paragraph 2 BattG).

Battery packs are also batteries according to BattG. A battery pack is any set of batteries that are connected together or encapsulated within an outer casing so as to form a complete unit that the end-user is not intended to split up or open (§ 2 paragraph 3 BattG).

Please note that electrical and electronic equipment that contains batteries is not within the scope of BattG. They are within the the scope of another disposal regime (ElektroG.) An application aid to delimit whether batteries or respectively electrical and electronic equipment that contains batteries are in the ElektroG’s scope, or that of the battery law (BattG), is available as a download (in German).

Exceptions

Certain batteries are not within BattG’s scope (§ 1 paragraph 2 BattG).

Thus BattG does not apply to batteries that are used

  1. in equipment connected with the protection of the essential security interests of the Federal Republic of Germany,
  2. in arms, munitions and defence material, with the exclusion of products that are not intended for specifically military purposes, or
  3. in equipment designed to be sent into space.