Although smart phones will soon require user-removable batteries in the EU, the European Commission is moving to exempt wearables, which includes smartwatches, fitness trackers, and smart glasses.
As reported by Politico, a so-called “legislative tweak” has cleared the way for US-based companies like Meta to keep the EU market in sight.
In a statement, a European Commission spokesperson maintained it “has not given in to anyone’s pressure,” as its proposals “follow a broad public consultation with consumer associations, industry stakeholders and the Member States.”
According to the spokesperson, the exemption “is not about regulating one specific product” but “to ensure safer consumer and industrial products in cases where opening a device could create safety risks or where technical limits make consumer access unrealistic.”
That said, the European Parliament and individual governments have a two-month period to object to the tweak before it’s entered into the Official Journal of the EU. Once entered, it’s only a 20 day wait until the bill is in force, putting official legislation in play possibly sometime in late November or early December.
While that’s cleared the way for companies like Meta, Google, Samsung and Apple to release smart glasses in the EU (and likely also AR glasses) materially unchanged, European regulators and lawmakers are increasingly discussing smart glasses’ role in data privacy and surveillance.
Politico notes the European Data Protection Board, which gathers privacy regulators across Europe, has ordered a report into smart glasses, likely to be finalized this summer. From there, EU lawmakers will assess actions.
“Europe should not dilute consumer protections. Smart glasses are already raising important concerns about privacy, security and consumer choice. Exemptions from EU battery removability rules should remain exactly that: genuine exceptions based on clear technical and safety evidence, not industry pressure. Exempting these devices … risks setting a dangerous precedent,” said Cláudio Texeira, head of digital policy at Europe’s largest consumer protection group BEUC.
This follows Meta’s recent class action lawsuit in the US over privacy concerns tied to its Ray-Ban smart glasses, wherein the company is accused of sending private camera footage to a Kenya-based subcontractor for manual review to train its AI models.
Allegations stem from an investigative report from Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten, which is said to have uncovered a subcontractor in Kenya tasked with reviewing and labeling images and videos uploaded from the glasses.
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