✨ Apple Intelligence summary: EU rules mandate replaceable batteries in smartphones and tablets from 2027, aiming to reduce electronic waste and save consumers up to €20 billion by 2030. The regulation requires batteries to be removable with commercially available tools and available for replacement for at least five years.
Apple is exempt as their batteries can do 1000 cycles and remain at 80% capacity. https://support.apple.com/en-us/101575
This is a specific carve out in the EU rules: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32023R1670
You're mixing up different regulations. That is the old ecodesign regulation that came into force in 2025. It regulates the access to official spare parts (including batteries) and only exempts Apple from providing battery replacements directly to consumers.
The new Battery regulation states that all portable batteries for certain types of devices (including phones) must be user replaceable and fully support third party batteries from February 2027 and onwards.
See Article 11:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1542/oj/eng
To my knowledge, Apple does not have any exemption in this case. There are still exemptions, but that mostly relates to e.g. medical or industrial devices, not typical consumer devices like phones.
