. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/EEC/300 
20 October 2009  
 (09-5159) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
  
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  European Commission 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :   
European Commission 
EC-TBT Enquiry Point 
Fax:  +(32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  ec-tbt@ec.europa.eu Website: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/
  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Portable secondary 
(rechargeable) and automotive batteries and accumulators. 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Draft Commission 
Regulation establishing, pursuant to Directive 2006/66/EC of the European Parliament and of 
the Council, rules as regards capacity labe lling of portable secondary (rechargeable) and 
automotive batteries and accumulators (9 pages, in English).     
6. Description of content:  The Batteries Directive (2006/66/EC ) requires that all portable and 
automotive batteries and accumulators are marked with a capacity label.  The capacity label 
aims at providing useful, easily understandabl e and comparable information for consumers 
when purchasing portable and automo tive batteries and accumulators.  
This draft Commission Regulation establishes th e requirements for the capacity labelling of 
portable secondary (rechargeable) and automotive  batteries and accumulators. Determination 
of the capacity for these batteries and accumulators is made on the basis of the existing 
International and European Standards to ensure  the accuracy of the information provided to 
consumers and fair competition and consistent quality values for manufacturers.  
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
Ensure fair and consis tent quality values for manufacturers  through harmonised, controllable 
and repeatable methods of capacity labelling of portable secondary (rechargeable) and 
automotive batteries. Also, provi de useful, easily understandabl e and comparable information 
for consumers when purchasing these batteries and accumulators prot ecting the consumers' 
rights.  G/TBT/N/EEC/300 
Page 2  
 
  8. Relevant documents:   Directive 2006/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 
of 6 September 2006 on batteries and accumulators and waste ba tteries and accumulators and 
repealing Directive 91/157/EEC (OJ L 266, 26.9. 2006, p. 1–14); Directive as last amended by 
Directive 2008/103/EC (OJ L 327, 5.12.2008, p. 7–8):  http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32006L0066:EN:NOT
  
Directive 2006/66/EC (consolidated version):  
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:2006L0066:20081205:EN:PDF    
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    End of  February 2009 
On the 20th day of its publication in the Official Journal of the EU  
10. Final date for comments:  60 days from date of notification. 
11. Text available from: National enquiry point [  ], or address, telephone and fax numbers, 
e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:    
European Commission 
EC-TBT Enquiry Point 
Fax:  + (32) 2 299 80 43 
E-mail:  ec-tbt@ec.europa.eu The text is available on the EC-TBT Website:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/ 
  
And can also be downloaded here: 
http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2009/tbt/eec/09_3678_00_e.pdf