June 11, 2026 · 6:45 AM
The Battery You Almost Got to Replace Yourself
The EU's 2020 mandatory removable-battery law was quietly gutted by a triple-exemption loophole.
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In 2020, the European Commission proposed a regulation that would have legally required every smartphone battery to be user-replaceable — no tools, no service center, just you and a spare battery. The tech industry almost had no way out.
Then came the lobbying. Between 2021 and 2023, industry groups rewrote Article 11 of the proposal into a triple-exemption clause: if your phone retains ≥83% battery capacity at 500 charge cycles and ≥80% at 1,000 cycles and is rated IP67 water-resistant, the sealed battery stays legal. Every flagship from Apple and Samsung qualifies. The mandate survived on paper; the spirit of it didn't.
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