18 August has passed: what now applies, what slipped, and the date that did not move

Two things happened on 18 August

On 18 August 2026 the Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 reached two of its own milestones, and they point in opposite directions. The labelling requirements on capacity and duration reached their statutory application date. And the Commission's deadline to adopt the implementing act on battery passport access rights passed without an act.

If you are an importer, an authorised representative or a manufacturer placing EV batteries, LMT batteries or industrial batteries above 2 kWh on the EU market, both matter — but not equally, and not in the way a headline would put it.

What now applies: labelling

Article 13 of the Battery Regulation sets 18 August 2026 as the application date for its labelling requirements, including the capacity and duration information for the batteries they cover. From that date, this is live law for batteries placed on the EU market. One qualification is written into the regulation itself: where labelling depends on harmonised specifications set by implementing act, timing can follow that act. If your labels depend on a format specification, check the state of the specification for your category rather than assuming the date alone settles it.

For most operators preparing passports, labelling is the smaller of the two stories. The larger one is the act that did not arrive.

What slipped: the access-rights implementing act

Article 77(9) is unambiguous about whose deadline this was: "By 18 August 2026, the Commission shall adopt implementing acts specifying which persons are to be considered persons with a legitimate interest" for the restricted data sets in Annex XIII. That date has now passed with no act adopted. The Commission's own Digital Product Passport timeline currently signals Q4 2026 for it.

Why it matters: battery passport data is not uniformly public. Annex XIII reserves defined data sets for persons with a legitimate interest and for authorities — the tiered-access structure every compliant passport has to implement. What the missing act settles is who qualifies for those restricted tiers: which recyclers, second-life operators, researchers or commercial parties can demand access, and on what footing. Until it is adopted, the data sets and the tier structure stand as the annex writes them; the definition of the persons entitled to the restricted tiers is the piece still to come.

The practical consequence is narrower than it first sounds. Nothing in the delay changes what data you must hold, how it must be structured, or when your passports must exist. It changes when the final rulebook for admitting third parties to the restricted tiers lands — and it is now the Commission, not you, working against a lapsed date.

The pattern is worth naming

The access-rights act is not the only late item on the Commission's side of the ledger. The due diligence guidelines were due by 26 July 2026 and have not been published. The delegated act on the calculation and verification of recycled content, due within August, remains a draft as the month closes. The delegated act on removability and replaceability derogations was adopted on 14 July but has yet to appear in the Official Journal. None of this is unusual for a regulation of this size, and none of it is grounds for complacency — because of the asymmetry underneath it.

When the Commission misses a date, your obligation does not move. The battery passport becomes mandatory on 18 February 2027 for each EV battery, LMT battery and industrial battery above 2 kWh placed on the market or put into service. That date is set in Article 77(1), it has survived every slipped act around it, and it is now less than six months away. A Commission deadline that slips shortens the Commission's runway, not yours.

What to do with this

Three things, none of which wait on Brussels. First, build against the regulation as written: the Annex XIII data sets and the tier structure are defined today, and the access-rights act will refine who is admitted, not what you must hold. Second, treat every "still to be specified" item the way the carbon footprint declaration already taught the market to: the format may be late, but the data collection behind it runs on calendar time and does not pause. Third, track the acts as they land rather than reconstructing the state of play each quarter.

That last one is what our timeline page is for: every ESPR and Battery Regulation date in one place, each entry carrying the official source document behind it and the date we last verified it, at /timeline.