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Comment by kramerger | Hacker News Reader

Because this legislation did not come out of nowhere. There were investigations about batteries at home before they fianlized this, and none of it involved smartphones. For example, there was a lot of talk about Dewalt, B&D, Ryobi and others each having a different batteries and a different type of chargers.

Smartphone battery issue was addressed separately and the whole spin on user replacable smartphone battery seems to come from forums like this and not EU. In fact, this proposal specifically allows water proof devices to be handled by a professional (an "independent" professional to be exact, which is very much inline with the previous proposal on smartphone battery replacement).

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I also don't see anything supporting this interpretation in the actual regulation - quite to the contrary. It repeatedly refers to all batteries, and says nothing of any class of devices that are exempt.

> new regulatory framework for batteries will consider rules on recycled content and measures to improve the collection and recycling rates of all batteries

> It is necessary to create a harmonised regulatory framework for dealing with the entire life cycle of batteries that are placed on the market in the Union.

> It is also necessary to update Union law on the management of waste batteries and to take measures to protect the environment and human health by preventing or reducing the adverse impacts of the generation and management of waste,

https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/PE-2-2023-INIT...

It also states:

"Products placed on the market [...] in applications that the end-user is not intended to split up or open [...] should be subject to requirements applicable to batteries."

This sounds to me like as long as they have a recycling program for cellphones, the entire phone can be considered the "battery" and no user replaceablilty is necessary.

The full paragraph is:

>Products placed on the market as battery packs, which are batteries or groups of cells that are connected or encapsulated within an outer casing to form a complete unit ready for use by end-users or in applications that the end-user is not intended to split up or open and which conform to the definition of batteries, or battery cells that conform to the definition of batteries, should be subject to requirements applicable to batteries.

I don't think phones can be considered being placed on the market as battery packs

So basically, the trick to avoid the legislation is to make your device water proof.

iPhones have been quite waterproof for years.

Hedge trimmers haven’t been.

You'd have to go further than that. The actual law says:

>specifically designed to operate primarily in an environment that is regularly subject to splashing water, water streams or water immersion, and that are intended to be washable or rinseable

An iPhone is specifically designed to cope with primarily outdoor use. It rains outdoors. Outdoors is "an environment that is regularly subject to splashing water".

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