The European Commission has approved Clarios’ acquisition of three lead recycling plants from Ecobat in Germany and Austria, saying the deal raises no competition concerns in the European Economic Area.
The EU executive cleared the transaction unconditionally under the EU Merger Regulation, which governs mergers and acquisitions that meet certain turnover thresholds, it announced on Monday night.
Clarios, headquartered in Germany, supplies automotive lead-acid batteries to car manufacturers and the spare parts market, and also runs lead recycling smelters in Germany and Spain.
The plants it is buying are secondary lead smelters — facilities that recycle used lead-acid batteries to produce lead that can be used again.
The three sites are in Braubach and Freiberg in Germany and Arnoldstein in Austria, and currently supply recycled lead to Clarios and other battery makers.
Competition review focused on recycled lead and scrap batteries
The Commission examined the impact on the supply of secondary lead and lead alloys, “tolling” services — when a smelter recycles scrap batteries for a customer for a fee — the procurement of scrap lead-acid batteries, and the manufacture and supply of automotive lead-acid batteries.
Competing battery manufacturers will still be able to access recycled lead after the acquisition, even if Clarios uses more of the output for its own production, because alternative smelters will continue selling on the open market, the Commission said.
It added that tolling accounts for only a small share of the secondary lead sourced by battery makers, and that other suppliers will remain available in Central Europe.
The watchdog also said that if Clarios were to stop buying recycled lead from other smelters, those smelters would still have enough potential customers, and that Clarios would have no incentive to cut the volumes of scrap batteries it buys from suppliers in Germany and Austria.
The transaction was notified to the Commission on 4 March 2026.
