The European Commission has adopted a new rule that lets smartwatch and fitness-tracker makers off the hook on user-replaceable batteries. In a delegated act adopted on July 14, 2026 — and still facing a Parliament and Council scrutiny window before it’s final — the Commission granted an EU wearable battery exemption, meaning devices like the Galaxy Watch, Pixel Watch, and similar fitness bands sold in the EU won’t be required to have batteries their owners can swap themselves. The catch for shoppers: this does not cover phones or tablets, which still face a stricter rule from February 18, 2027. Your next smartwatch can stay sealed, but your next Android phone sold in Europe will have to ship with a replaceable battery.
What the EU wearable battery exemption actually covers
The exemption applies to compact wearables — the Commission specifically names smartwatches and fitness trackers. It also adds electric toys and ATEX-directive equipment (explosion-proof gear) to a list that already exempted medical devices and “wet appliances” such as electric toothbrushes and water flossers. Secondary reports from outlets including MacRumors, TechTimes, and 9to5Mac also fold wireless earbuds and smart glasses — think AirPods or Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses — into the exemption, though that detail wasn’t spelled out in the Commission’s own release.
The Commission’s reasoning: for tiny, tightly packed devices, letting the end user pry them open “may compromise safety, durability, or water resistance,” or is “simply not practical due to their compact design.”
This is a partial exemption, not a free pass. Even exempted wearables must still have batteries that can be removed and replaced by an independent professional repairer — the rule just no longer demands the owner be able to do it themselves. These devices are not “sealed forever”; they simply won’t be legally required to be end-user serviceable.
Phones and tablets are not exempt — the 2027 deadline still stands
This is the part that affects most readers. Smartphones and tablets are not covered by the new exemption. Under the EU’s Batteries Regulation, originally adopted in 2023, any phone or tablet sold in the EU must have a battery the end user can replace using basic, commercially available tools, and that battery has to be sold as an available spare part. The requirement takes effect on February 18, 2027, and it applies to every major brand in the bloc — Samsung, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Google, Oppo, Vivo, Motorola, Apple, and the rest.
It is not a return to the pop-off plastic backs of 2010-era phones. The bar is tool-based replaceability — the manufacturer can require a basic tool, and can even supply it — not that the phone must ship with a hand-openable battery door. Today’s glued-in, sealed designs that turn a battery swap into an expensive workshop job are what’s on the way out, not the physics of a modern water-resistant handset.
For buyers, that’s a genuine win. Batteries are usually the first component to wear out, and a phone whose battery can be affordably replaced lasts longer and generates less e-waste — the whole point of the right-to-repair push. It’s the philosophy that made devices like the Fairphone 5 a repairability benchmark, now written into law for everyone.
The Android angle: Google already did this voluntarily
As Android Authority notes, there’s an instructive contrast on the wearable side. Google’s Pixel Watch 4, launched in 2025, is the company’s first “serviceable” Pixel Watch, with a battery and display a technician can replace — something Google built in ahead of any mandate, per its own product announcement. Under the new exemption, rival smartwatch and wearable makers face no legal obligation to match it.
Did US lobbying drive the carve-out?
The Register, Tech Times, and other outlets have reported that the wearables carve-out followed pressure from the United States. US Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder publicly criticized the rules in March 2026, arguing they blocked the sale of jointly developed US-European products such as Meta’s smart glasses, and the Irish Times reported lobbying from US officials and tech firms.
The Commission pushes back. A spokesperson said the bloc “has not given in to anyone’s pressure,” noting that the process for granting exemptions — a formal call for applications — opened in 2025, before Puzder’s comments, and that the delegated act followed independent technical assessment plus consultation with consumer groups, industry, and member states. Both accounts are on the record, and Brussels insists it didn’t cave.
Even so, from a consumer standpoint it’s fair to name what happened: a partial retreat from the regulation’s original ambition that essentially everything should be repairable. The phone mandate is the strong, pro-buyer core of the law; the wearables exemption softens it, arrived at amid heavy industry and diplomatic lobbying.
What happens next
This isn’t final law yet. The delegated act has gone to the European Parliament and the Council of the EU for a scrutiny period during which either body can object. If neither does, it enters into force 20 days after publication in the Official Journal of the EU — so it’s on track to take effect, not a done deal. The February 2027 phone-and-tablet deadline underneath it remains unchanged. It also lands just days after the European Commission ordered Google to open Android and Search to AI rivals — a reminder of how much of the Android ecosystem’s near-term shape is now being drawn in Brussels.
Sources: European Commission, Android Authority, The Register, 9to5Mac, PhoneArena
