CE Certificate for Librem 5 batteries

I have ordered a couple of extra batteries in addition to the Librem 5, but the customs office (in Europe) requires a CE certificate for them. Has anybody else needed or has such a CE certificate and if yes, could you send it to me?
I have sent an email to Purism support, but haven’t received an answer yet.

The batteries at least do carry the “CE” marking.

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As far as I know, all that you have is the CE marks on the product, no additional and official “Certificate” that you receive from any agency.

You might like to forward this link: http://www.zstmb.com/en/about.asp to your local Customs office. It might help (Contacts tab provided as well), at least temporarily.

Situation doesn’t look funny to me at all while @lpopov payed for something that might be destroyed (hopefully not) and therefore needs to be aware of why, if so, customs officer requests CE Certificate for BPP-L503: “Accordingly it is not allowed to mark a battery with e.g. “RoHS compliant” or similar characters/pictographs, which are intended to show the conformity with the RoHS Directive.

Q1.6 Are batteries within the scope of RoHS?
No. Recital 14 of RoHS 2 specifically states that RoHS should apply without prejudice to the Batteries Directive. Recital 29 of the batteries and accumulators directive (2006/66/EC 6 ) states RoHS does not apply to batteries and accumulators used in electrical and electronic equipment.

Sending links to them won’t work. As the DHL agent wrote to me: “A customs agent requested the certificate, so it is mandatory.”.
And from the link @spaetz sent:

Once your product bears the CE marking — if the competent national authority requests — you must provide them with all the information and supporting documentation concerning CE marking.

@Kyle_Rankin do you have or can you provide me a CE certificate for the batteries?

In the mean time DHL has 6 EUR per day storage fee…

I am not a lawyer, but that does not imply that there is any formal certificate. I understand it that - on request - you need to have the documentation that and how it fullfils the CE criteria. I might well be wrong.

Good luck though. I would rather ask in the librem matrix channel or send a mail to support rather than waiting for Kyle to eventually read this forum.

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@lpopov Would you mind sharing which European country this is happening in? Not suggesting the same will happen for all customers in that country, but it would be interesting to know.

@spaetz yeah, I have no idea if there is or isn’t such a certificate. I only know that customs wants it, that’s why I posted here, in case anybody else have dealt with such an issue. I already wrote to the support email, but asking in the matrix channel is a good idea, thanks.

@Sebastian it’s Bulgaria, but I imagine it could happen in any EU country

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It will not help you when I write in Germany DHL delivered my two L5 with an additional battery w/o any problem for €216 (VAT + handling fee).

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@guru you are right, it doesn’t help :slight_smile: I know of one Librem 5 + additional battery that was delivered to Bulgaria without the customs requesting such a certificate. According to the DHL agent - it’s not relevant.

In other news, Purism Support replied to my email, they are looking into it.

Also, the CE certificate may turn out to be a declaration, according to this.

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This (not relevant to them), they make your life misery over there, as there is always special (regulated) care taken during transport of smallest amount of any lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. Actually it is that I understand that they are manufactured in China and as well allowed to be imported into Bulgaria. @lpopov, please check private message that I just sent to you (might help). It is usually done by special carrier, but Librem 5 battery should not be problematic (other than having unnecessarily printed out RoHS stamp on it) by itself, just my current thought.

This “such an issue” refers directly to IEC 62368-1:2018 STANDARD, refers to everyone’s safety. Sweet and short explanation is here:

@Quarnero I don’t think they are questioning the transport or if they are allowed to be imported, but are requesting a piece of standard documentation that should come with the batteries.

As for the “such an issue”, I meant if somebody has a copy of this certificate and has provided it to customs. I’m not questioning if the battery should be tested for safety or not (they should). I wouldn’t want unsafe batteries in my home nor in my pocket.

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Yes, I probably understand well what you are searching for and therefore my previous post boils down to this (some other manufacturer site that complies with your kind, well grounded, request), good example. Just scroll down to the bottom of this linked page, just under Certificate mark, and you’ll find, be able to download, what are you looking for, but only in terms of an example, very clear example on how things might be done within any manufacturers site that sells products (especially when such product doesn’t involve well known names).

@Quarnero yeah, I looked for such a thing on the battery manufacturers website, but couldn’t find any.

In other news, there’s been a week since Purism started looking into it, but no feedback, despite the emails I sent them. DHL storage fees are about 50 EUR by now…

@Kyle_Rankin how much time should I wait for this document, before I find out what customs will do to my shipment without it?

@Ipopov, I recommend that you point Purism to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CE_marking#Rules_underlying_CE_marking

The manufacturer of a product affixes the CE marking to it but has to take certain obligatory steps before the product can bear CE marking. The manufacturer must carry out a conformity assessment, set up a technical file, and sign a Declaration stipulated by the leading legislation for the product. The documentation has to be made available to authorities on request.

If you are paying daily fees, you should probably order them to return the item to Purism, and then when Purism has its CE files in order, you can reorder the battery.

Finally, Purism sent me a battery test report that says the batteries comply with EU standards. The shipment was released from customs and is now in my hands.

I tried to upload the report here, but only images are allowed. If somebody can recommend a reliable file sharing website, let me know, so I can upload it and share the link.

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Nice. Would be beautiful if that document could be linked in the battery page of the Purism shop - that would have been the first stop where I looked up that sheet at least.

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In the interests of decentralization, you can pin it on Siasky.