CPSC button cell and coin battery rule explained.

What part 1263 is for

The scope paragraph, 1263.1(a), says the part is required by Reese’s Law (15 U.S.C. 2056e, Pub. L. 117-171) and "establishes performance and labeling requirements for consumer products containing button cell or coin batteries to prevent child access to batteries during reasonably foreseeable use and misuse of the consumer product." It adds that the part is "intended to eliminate or adequately reduce the risk of injury and death to children 6 years old and younger from ingesting these batteries."

The same paragraph gives the rule two halves. One half is about products that contain or use the batteries: performance and warning requirements for the product, its packaging, and the instructions and manuals that come with it. The other half is about the batteries as sold: warning labels on the packaging of button cell or coin batteries, including batteries packaged separately with a consumer product. The text does not set a battery size cutoff in inches or millimeters. The test is the shape-based definition below.

Dates in 1263.1(b)

Two dates matter. "Except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, the effective date of 1263.3 is October 23, 2023." And "Packages of button cell or coin batteries manufactured or imported after September 21, 2024, must meet the labeling requirements for battery packaging in 1263.4." Those are the only dates in the part: the product requirement came first, and the battery package labeling followed about a year later. A battery package made before the second date is not covered by 1263.4 on the text of this paragraph.

Who is covered and who is not

The product requirement in 1263.3 reaches "each consumer product containing button cell or coin batteries." The definition in 1263.2 is broad on purpose: it covers a consumer product "containing or designed to use one or more button cell or coin batteries, regardless of whether such batteries are intended to be replaced by the consumer or are included with the product or sold separately." A remote control that ships without a battery but is designed to use one is inside that definition.

Two things take a product or battery out. First, 1263.1(c): "Any object designed, manufactured, or marketed as a plaything for children under 14 years of age that is in compliance with the battery accessibility and labeling requirements of 16 CFR part 1250 is exempt from the requirements of this part." Second, 1263.1(d): batteries "that the Commission has determined do not present an ingestion hazard are not subject to this part. These are: zinc-air button cell or coin batteries." The toy exemption is conditional on compliance with part 1250; a toy that does not meet those battery rules is not exempt on this text.

The definition of a button cell or coin battery

Section 1263.2 defines the term in two limbs. "(1) A single cell battery with a diameter greater than the height of the battery; or (2) Any other battery, regardless of the technology used to produce an electrical charge, that is determined by the Commission to pose an ingestion hazard." The first limb is a pure geometry test: measure diameter and height in the same unit and compare. The checker above applies it. The second limb depends on a Commission determination, which a calculator cannot make.

The part also defines "ingestion hazard" as a hazard caused by a person swallowing or inserting a battery into their body, where the battery "can become lodged in the digestive tract or airways" and "can potentially cause death or serious injury through choking, generation of hazardous chemicals, leaking of hazardous chemicals, electrical burns, pressure necrosis, or other means."

What the product must do: 1263.3

The product requirement is one sentence long: each consumer product containing button cell or coin batteries "shall comply with ANSI/UL 4200A, Standard for Safety for Products Incorporating Button Batteries or Coin Cell Batteries, approved on August 30, 2023." The standard is incorporated by reference, which means its text, not the CFR section, holds the detailed tests. The CFR says a free read-only copy is available on UL’s website and that the standard can be inspected at the CPSC and at the National Archives. This page does not reproduce the UL standard and does not summarize its tests.

Battery packaging labels: 1263.4

The general rules in 1263.4(a) say all warning statements "must be clearly visible, prominent, legible, and permanently marked," in a contrasting color, in English. The safety alert symbol (an exclamation mark in a triangle) must come before the signal word, its base on the same line as the base of the letters, and its height at least the signal word height. "The signal word WARNING and safety alert symbol must be in black letters on an orange background" unless that would conflict with the visibility and contrast rules or only one color is present; the signal word must be sans serif and upper case.

The principal display panel must carry the full warning label in figure 1, with an icon at least 8 mm (0.3 inches) in diameter. If space prohibits that, 1263.4(b)(2) lets the packager put an icon of at least 20 mm in diameter on the principal display panel and the text on the secondary display panel. Either way, the package must also address two statements, on the principal or secondary panel: "Keep in original package until ready to use," and "Immediately dispose of used batteries and keep away from children. Do NOT dispose of batteries in household trash." For batteries packaged separately with a consumer product, 1263.4(b)(4) says only paragraphs (b)(1) and (b)(2) apply.

Letter size by package area

Text size depends on the area of the principal display panel, using Table 1 to paragraph (a)(7). The table is based on 16 CFR 1500.19(d)(7). Sizes are in inches of letter height.

The table also gives centimeter equivalents "for reference only"; the inch values control.

Worked example

A packager sells a pack of 20 mm lithium cells that are 3.2 mm tall. Diameter (20) is greater than height (3.2), so the cell is a single cell battery meeting limb (1) of the definition. Lithium is not zinc-air, and a loose battery pack is not a toy, so no exemption applies on those facts. The retail card has a front panel of 12 square inches. That falls in the "over 10 to 15" row, so the signal word is 7/64 inch, the statement of hazard 3/32 inch and other text 1/16 inch. The full figure 1 label goes on that front panel with an icon at least 8 mm across, and the two additional statements go on the front or back.

Limits of this page

The checker answers the geometry and exemption questions in the text and looks up Table 1. It does not read the figures that show the required label artwork, so it cannot confirm the wording inside figures 1 and 3; read those in the eCFR. It does not apply ANSI/UL 4200A, decide whether a battery is "determined by the Commission" to pose an ingestion hazard under limb (2), or address certification and testing duties that sit in other parts of the CFR. For the children’s product certificate, see the linked checker on this site.

Sources

Sources opened and read November 2, 2026.

• eCFR: 16 CFR part 1263, safety standard for button cell or coin batteries and consumer products containing such batteries (current through October 29, 2026) (read November 2, 2026)