Motorised blinds and the button battery rules: what the remote and its pack must have, and what is only recommended

The short answer, by who you are

• You import or brand the motor and remote. The safety standard’s tests are done before the supply of the consumer goods to a consumer, on representative samples, and the required warnings go in the instructions and on the pack.
• You sell or install motorised blinds. Know which of your remotes take a button or coin cell, check the instructions carry the battery warning and the pack carries the symbol, and ask your supplier which test route the remote was tested to (below).
• You resell second-hand or relocated stock as a business. The explanatory statement says goods supplied after the rules began are covered including when re-supplied as second-hand goods, unless the re-supply is a one-off by a consumer, such as a private sale.

Read alongside our July report on a recall of a motorised-awning remote, and our story on the new installer qualification, which asks installers to check button battery safety.

Is your remote caught?

There are two instruments: the Consumer Goods (Products Containing Button/Coin Batteries) Safety Standard 2020, which deals with the battery and its compartment, and the Consumer Goods (Products Containing Button/Coin Batteries) Information Standard 2020, which deals with warnings. Both define a button/coin battery as a small, single cell battery with a diameter greater than the battery’s height, and both carry the same note on what goods are: Goods include any component part of, or accessory to, goods.

The explanatory statement registered with the safety standard spells out what that means for a remote: Accessories of consumer goods, such as remote controls that contain button/coin batteries, are subject to the requirements of this safety standard. The statement for the information standard says the same of that standard.

1. Does it hold a button or coin battery? A single cell wider than it is tall.No: these two standards do not apply.
2. Is it a consumer good, or a part of or accessory to one? Goods include parts and accessories.The explanatory statements give remote controls as their example.
3. Was it first supplied to a consumer on or after the application day? 22 June 2022, on our count.Earlier: not covered. Re-supplied second-hand by a business since: covered.
4. Is it exempt? Hearing aids (from the safety standard only); a one-off sale by someone who bought it as a consumer; trade equipment meeting all three conditions; soldered-in batteries in audio, video and computer equipment or office machines.A remote kept in a living room is unlikely to meet the third trade condition, our reading.
5. Then both standards apply to it.

The trade-equipment exemption needs all three conditions: the equipment is intended to be used in trades, professions or industries, is not intended for sale to the general public and is not intended to be used where children are present.

What the safety standard requires

Four sections set the physical rules, and which ones bite depends on whether the user is meant to change the battery.

Section 8, every product with a cell. Whether or not the battery is meant to be replaced, it must not release during reasonably foreseeable use or misuse conditions. Compliance is shown by testing samples to named clauses of one of several industry standards, with the batteries not released during the testing. The product-specific options are the audio/video and ICT standard (AS/NZS 62368.1:2018 or IEC 62368-1:2018, clauses 4.8.4.2 to 4.8.4.6), the toy safety standard, the electronic apparatus standard AS/NZS 60065:2018 and the luminaires standard. The general option is UL 4200A, sections 6.3.2 to 6.3.4. Where a test in a product-specific standard is not appropriate for the product, a more appropriate alternative test may be used, provided it still ensures the battery is not released.

Section 9, a battery the user changes. The compartment must be designed to ensure the compartment is resistant to being opened by young children, again shown by named tests and, after testing, compliance with named clauses.

Section 10, screws. If the compartment cover is held by screws and the supplier has taken the UL 4200A route for section 8, the screws must be captive and remain with the door or cover. The explanatory statement says that is aimed at avoiding the potential loss of the fastener at the time of replacing the batteries.

Section 11, a fixed battery a user can still reach. Samples must meet the test in section 6.4 of UL 4200A.

Who does the testing? The explanatory statement says Tests may be performed using suitable in-house expertise/facilities or by external testing bodies/laboratories. And a note to sections 8 and 9 says On request by the regulator, a supplier may be required to nominate the applicable requirements. The referenced industry standards are not free: the explanatory statement says they must be purchased (see our report on the Government’s free standards program).

“Available data indicates that children gained access to button/coin batteries directly from the product in almost two thirds of cases where the source of the battery was known.”

What the warnings must say, and what is only advice

The information standard splits in two. Part 2 is requirements. Part 3 is recommendations, and section 11 says in terms that a person does not contravene the instrument by supplying goods that do not follow it.

Must

Part 2, requirements

• A battery warning in the instructions, if there are instructions, clearly visible, prominent and legibles 8(2)
• A safety alert symbol on the front panel of the packaging, if packageds 8(3)
• No instructions? The warning attached to or included with the goods; unpackaged, attached by sticker or tags 8(4) to (6)
• The warning covers: an alert word in capitals; the symbol; the battery is hazardous, keep it from children, new or used; a lithium cell can cause severe or fatal injuries in 2 hours or less, a non-lithium cell serious injuries, if swallowed or placed inside the body; seek medical attention immediatelys 8(7)
• Size, legibility and durability to clauses D.5 and D.7 of ISO 3864-2:2016s 10

Should

Part 3, recommendations

• A warning on the remote itself, on or close to where the battery is accessibles 12
• The full text warning on the packaging, on the front if there is rooms 13
• A warning in the product description of an online listings 14
• The phone number of the Australian Poisons Information Centres 15
• Advice on how to dispose of the battery safelys 16

The lighter regime in section 9 is worth knowing. If the goods come with instructions and the battery is fully enclosed, is not intended to be removed or replaced by a consumer, or where a specialist is required to install or remove the battery, the warning need only be in the instructions, covering the same matters. Whether a remote fits those words is a question about the product; check it before relying on the lighter regime.

The explanatory statement gives the reason the on-product warning is only advice: many consumer goods containing button/coin batteries are of a small size and such warnings will not be practical for all products. The symbol the standard offers as a suitable example combines ISO 7010-W001 and IEC 60417-6367.

Where the installer comes in

The endorsed unit for installing interior blinds, MSFBAA305 Install interior blinds, current from 13 March 2026, names the battery in a performance criterion:

“Ensure all child safety requirements have been met for internal corded window furnishings and button batteries, where applicable”

Its knowledge evidence lists button battery safety requirements, and its performance evidence requires installation of an automated blind (including installation and testing). The two standards above are what those requirements are, for the remote. The unit also says No licensing, legislative or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of publication.

When it started, and what has changed since

1. 21 December 2020Both standards registered on the Federal Register of Legislation
2. 22 December 2020Both commence; the 18-month transition begins
3. 6 April 2022An amendment widens the safety standard’s hearing-aid exemption to cover cochlear and bone conduction implants
4. 22 June 2022Application day, our count: goods first supplied to a consumer from now must comply
5. 13 March 2026MSFBAA305 Install interior blinds, Release 1, current on the National Training Register

The 2022 amendment’s explanatory statement gives the minor nature of the amendment as the reason no consultation was needed; on our reading it changed nothing for a blind remote. As at 8 October 2026 the register’s latest version of the safety standard is that April 2022 compilation, and of the information standard the instrument as made in 2020.

Our read

This section is opinion, built on the instruments above.

The legal minimum for the warnings stops one step short of what a parent needs in the moment. The required warning says seek medical attention immediately; the Poisons Information Centre number, the one thing that turns that into an action, is a recommendation. So is a warning on the remote, which is the part that stays in the living room after the box and the instructions have gone. A window furnishings business can close both gaps at no real cost: put the number and the battery warning in its own handover and care documents, and ask suppliers for remotes that carry the warning near the battery door.

On the physical side, the question to put to a supplier, in writing, is the one the instrument expects a regulator might ask: which standard and which clauses was this remote tested to, and was the battery released? A supplier who can answer that quickly has done the work. One who cannot is telling you something too.

Sources

1. Consumer Goods (Products Containing Button/Coin Batteries) Safety Standard 2020, compilation No. 1, compilation date 6 April 2022 (F2022C00445), Federal Register of Legislation (read 8 October 2026): the definitions, application and exemptions in sections 4 to 6, requirements in sections 7 to 17, and the registration and commencement dates in the endnotes.
2. Explanatory statement to that safety standard, registered 21 December 2020 (read 8 October 2026): remote controls as accessories, second-hand resupply, in-house or external testing, purchased standards, the 18-month transition and the two-thirds figure.
3. Consumer Goods (Products Containing Button/Coin Batteries) Information Standard 2020, as made, Federal Register of Legislation (read 8 October 2026): every requirement and recommendation in the must and should figure, and the commencement date.
4. Explanatory statement to that information standard, registered 21 December 2020 (read 8 October 2026): remote controls as accessories, the 18-month transition, and why Part 3 recommendations are not requirements.
5. Explanatory statement to the Consumer Goods (Button/Coin Batteries) Amendment Safety Standard 2022 and the Consumer Goods (Products Containing Button/Coin Batteries) Amendment Safety Standard 2022, registered 5 April 2022 (read 8 October 2026): what the 2022 amendment changed.
6. National Training Register, MSFBAA305 Install interior blinds, Release 1, current 13 March 2026 (read in a browser 8 October 2026): performance criterion 2.6, knowledge evidence, performance evidence and the licensing statement.

How we did this. We downloaded the latest version of each instrument from the Federal Register of Legislation and read it in full, with its explanatory statement. The safety standard’s latest version is compilation No. 1, which includes the 2022 amendment; the information standard’s latest version is the instrument as made. A search of the register for titles containing “Button”, sorted newest first, found no instrument registered after 5 April 2022 (8 October 2026). Both instruments define the application day as the day after the period of 18 months beginning on the day this instrument commences; both commenced on 22 December 2020, so we count that period as ending on 21 June 2022 and the application day as 22 June 2022. That date is our arithmetic, not a date either instrument states. We have not read the referenced industry standards, which are sold by their publishers, or the Australian Consumer Law’s penalty provisions, so this story does not describe test methods or penalties. The ACCC’s product safety website refused our requests on 8 October 2026, so its guidance pages were not read. This is an explainer, not legal advice. We have no commercial relationship with any supplier of remotes or motorised window coverings, and we have not contacted the regulator.

Supply motorised coverings, or read a clause differently? Tell us and we will check it at the source and log the outcome here.