SKAT drops portable-battery fee guidance as EU battery rules take over

Skattestyrelsen's business guidance page on environmental and energy duties (Miljø- og energiafgifter) no longer carries the section 'Batteri-gebyr (bærbare og akkumulatorer)'Skat. The removed section stated that a fee applied to portable batteries and accumulators — for example AA and AAA batteries and batteries used in mobile phones, battery-powered tools, toys and household appliances — and that businesses producing or importing batteries had to register for the fee, which was reported and paid once a year. It pointed to Den juridiske vejledning E.A.7.10.5 for the calculation.

The rest of the page is unchanged: the neighbouring sections on the NiCd battery duty (Batteri-afgift (NiCd)) and on fluorinated gases and CFC remain, as do the registration forms for the other duties.

The removal reflects a change in the underlying regime rather than the end of producer obligations. The per-kilo payment for municipal collection of portable batteries, previously set in miljøbeskyttelsesloven § 9 u, stk. 2 and collected through SKAT, belonged to the old directive-based scheme. That scheme has been replaced by the directly applicable EU Battery Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1542)Retsinformation, whose chapter on waste management and extended producer responsibility applies from 18 August 2025Retsinformation: producers themselves must organise collection and finance the net costs of collection, treatment and recycling, including through approved producer responsibility organisations. The Danish amending proposal L 84 of 7 November 2024 (Forslag til lov om ændring af lov om miljøbeskyttelse) accordingly proposes repealing the environmental protection act's battery producer-responsibility provisions and adding supplementary national rules, including authorisations on mandatory membership of collective schemes and on the guarantee producers or their organisations must provide under Article 58(7) of the Regulation.

For producers and importers of portable batteries and accumulators, the practical point is that the old SKAT-collected payment described in the deleted guidance section no longer reflects the applicable setup: obligations now flow from the Battery Regulation's extended producer responsibilityRetsinformation, with collection organised by producers rather than the municipalities. Businesses should verify their registration and financing arrangements under the current producer-responsibility setup instead of following the removed annual fee-reporting description. Legal basis: Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 on batteries and waste batteries; L 84, fremsat 7. november 2024, in which §§ 9 u-9 x ophæves, og i stedet indsættes a new § 9 u headed »Udvidet producentansvar for batterier – supplerende bestemmelser til batteriforordningen«.