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Distributor onboarding

As a distributor, you make batteries available on the EU market after they have been placed there by a manufacturer or importer. Your role focuses on maintaining supply chain traceability and ensuring the batteries you handle continue to comply with their DPP requirements — you do not create DPPs from scratch.

Step 1 — Create your account​

  1. Go to app.traceable.digital and click Get started.
  2. Register with your business email and verify it.
  3. On the company setup screen:
    • Enter your Legal Company Name
    • Select Distributor as your operator type
    • Enter your EU VAT number
  4. Click Save and continue.

Step 2 — Understand your role in the DPP chain​

Distributors typically do not originate DPPs — that obligation rests with the manufacturer or importer. Your responsibilities are:

  • Ensuring the battery you receive has a valid, accessible DPP
  • Not altering the product or its DPP in ways that invalidate conformity
  • Recording traceability information (who you received from, who you supplied to)
  • Keeping batch and supply chain records for regulatory traceability purposes

Traceable supports all of this through the Traceability Records feature.

Step 3 — Add your suppliers (upstream)​

Your upstream suppliers are the manufacturers or importers from whom you source batteries.

  1. Go to Suppliers in the sidebar.
  2. Click Add supplier and enter your supplier's company name and contact email.
  3. If they use Traceable, they will appear as a linked supplier — you can access their published DPPs directly.
  4. If they do not use Traceable, you can still store their details and reference their external DPPs.

Step 4 — Create traceability records​

Traceability records document the custody chain for specific products:

  1. Navigate to a product (either one you've received from a supplier or one you've added manually).
  2. Click the Traceability tab.
  3. Add a traceability record:
    • From — the entity you received the battery from
    • To — the entity you supplied it to (or leave blank if not yet distributed)
    • Batch reference — your internal batch or lot number
    • Date — date of receipt or delivery
  4. Save the record.

These records satisfy supply chain due diligence documentation requirements and are available during any market surveillance audit.

Step 5 — Add products (if you need to register a product)​

In cases where you are the first entity placing a battery on the EU market (for example, receiving batteries from a non-EU source with no existing DPP), you have the same obligations as an importer.

In that case, follow the Importer Onboarding guide from Step 4 onwards and select Distributor when prompted for operator type in the relevant DPP fields.

Step 6 — Verify DPPs of batteries you handle​

Before accepting a shipment of batteries, you can verify their DPPs:

  1. Scan the QR code on the battery — this opens the public DPP viewer.
  2. Confirm the DPP is Published and the product identity matches the physical battery.
  3. Check the Declaration of Conformity is attached and current.
  4. Log this check in your internal records (Traceable's audit trail captures this if you access the DPP while logged in).

What's next?​