MyDeal Compliance and Safety
New Button Cell Battery Safety Standards
On 22 June 2022, the new button battery safety standards come into effect. The standards can be found here:
- Consumer Goods (Products Containing Button/Coin Batteries) Safety Standard
- Consumer Goods (Products Containing Button/Coin Batteries) Information Standard
- Consumer Goods (Button/Coin Batteries) Safety Standard
- Consumer Goods (Button/Coin Batteries) Information Standard
These standards are aimed at reducing the risk of death and serious injury associated with the use of button batteries usually as a result of ingestion of the batteries by children.
Any product with a button battery must have a secure battery compartment to prevent children from gaining access to the batteries. Sellers must ensure their products with button batteries have undergone compliance testing, they supply batteries in child-resistant packaging, and place additional warnings and emergency advice on packaging and instructions all in accordance with the standards.
As a seller on MyDeal, you are obliged to comply with these requirements. Failure to meet the requirements of the standards can result in suspension of offending products or your store, or termination of your store account from MyDeal.
For more information on the standards, see the recent ACCC press release here.
What’s covered by the standards?
Button batteries are flat, round, single cell batteries found in many household items such as toys, watches, remote controls, timers, cameras, calculators, heart rate monitors, kitchen and bathroom scales, flameless candles, novelty items, Bluetooth tracking devices and many other items.
Apart from the limited exceptions mentioned below, any product which contains a button battery, as well as the individual batteries themselves, are subject to the standards.
Excluded products are:
Batteries
- zinc-air batteries intended for use in hearing aids; and
- button/coin batteries supplied in bulk to trades, professions or industries, and are not intended for sale to the public.
Products
- hearing aids.
- consumer goods that were first supplied to a consumer before the requirements became mandatory.
- professional equipment where all of the following apply:
- the equipment is intended to be used in trades, professions or industries;
- the equipment is not intended for sale to the general public; and
- the equipment is not intended to be used where children are present.
- audio-visual and information and communications technology equipment containing button/coin batteries that are soldered in place.
What’s required by the standards?
Sellers should refer to the full text of the standards in the links above to understand the detailed requirements of each relevant standard and seek advice from professional product safety and compliance personnel where required. Summarised below are some of the key requirements:
- Products containing replaceable button cell batteries must have a secure compartment resistant to being opened by children tested to the standards;
- Products containing either replaceable or non-replaceable button batteries must securely hold batteries even under conditions of misuse or accident;
- Products and packaging must include prescribed warnings, symbols and information:
- On packaging;
- On products;
- In instructions,
- Packaging of certain products must be child resistant;
- Battery packaging must contain warnings and be child resistant where sold separately.
What do sellers on MyDeal need to do?
Understand your obligations
You must familiarise yourself with the standards if you have not done so already. For more information on the standards, see the ACCC’s Product Safety page here.
Ensure your products on MyDeal meet the standards
You must ensure you check your currently selling products, and any products you intend to sell on MyDeal which contain button batteries comply with the standards. This means you must check each product which contains button batteries and ensure that those do not comply are not sold on MyDeal.
Selling products that do not comply with mandatory standards is a breach of our Policies and our Seller terms and Conditions. Any sellers that fail to ensure they are compliant with the button battery standards, or any other legal or safety requirements risk being banned from selling any products on MyDeal.