eBay Releases New Mandatory Standard for Coin Cell Batteries

On July 14, eBay's official website released a new announcement today, saying that because button batteries present a series of consumer safety risks, especially dangerous to children, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has established mandatory safety and information standards to reduce the risk of injury and death to children from contact with button/coin batteries.

The announcement stated that in order to ensure sellers' compliance, eBay requires sellers' products and packaging to comply with new safety standards. The standards include: providing a safe battery box to prevent children from accessing batteries; providing child-resistant packaging for high-risk batteries; and displaying additional warnings and emergency recommendations in packaging and instructions.

The new standard will take effect and become mandatory on June 22, 2022. Sellers can use the transition period to sell existing inventory, update product manufacturing and design, change future listings, and conduct all necessary testing to ensure that products comply with the standard.

Previously, eBay also issued a notice stating that from July 1, 2022, eBay will collect and pay import value-added tax on behalf of transaction orders not exceeding 150 euros shipped directly to the European Union.

For these orders, sellers must provide the carrier with eBay's Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) service number electronically. Otherwise, the buyer may be charged VAT again upon delivery.