AirTags’ Removable Battery Forces Australian Retailer to Temporarily Pull Trackers off Shelves Over Safety Concerns

The biggest convenience of owning AirTags is that you will not be required to purchase additional trackers as they feature a removable battery. Just pop them out, replace them, and you are good to go for another year. Unfortunately, it is this exact convenience that forced Australian retailer to stop selling them in the first place over child safety concerns.

Children Could Gain Access to the AirTags’ Battery, Creating a Safety Risk to Themselves

The AirTags have a removable CR2032 coin-shaped battery that can be replaced using a fairly simple process. Unfortunately, Australian retailer Officeworks was forced to temporarily pull these trackers from its shelves, stating that children could easily gain access to these batteries, putting themselves at risk. While the retailer did not provide an exact reason why the trackers are no longer sold, a Reddit thread provides insight as to what exactly transpired.

“Went to an Officeworks store today (Keswick, SA) to return something and got a store voucher. Knowing that my engraved AirTags won’t come in for another week, I thought I could buy an AirTag with the voucher.

Staff at the counter could see on their system that they had some in stock, and one staff member even remembered selling them on Friday, but they couldn’t find them today.

Eventually someone came downstairs from the office and explained that the AirTags have been recalled due to safety concerns of how easily the button-cell battery can be removed by a child. AirTags have also been removed from the Officeworks website.

I couldn’t verify this story on any news site and they continue to be for sale on Apple’s Australian online store.

Any one able to help me verify this?”

Gizmodo later reports Apple’s response, which states that AirTags are designed to meet international child safety standards.

“AirTag is designed to meet international child safety standards, including those in Australia, by requiring a two-step push-and-turn mechanism to access the user-replaceable battery. We are following the regulations closely and are working to ensure that our products will meet or exceed new standards, including those for package labeling, well ahead of the timeline required.”

It is not confirmed when Officeworks will restock the AirTags, but this removable battery appears like a non-issue to us. We say this because Tile’s trackers also feature removable batteries, yet they received no flak regarding this. We will continue to update our readers on what the situation becomes in the future, so stay tuned for more.

You might also like to check out.

• An Apple VP Says the AirTags Are Meant to Locate Lost Items, Not Children or Pets
• Tile Claims Apple’s New AirTags Will ‘Unfairly Limit Competition’ – Wants Congress to Intervene
• AirTags Teardown Shows ‘Impressively Compact’ Design With no Wasted Space Compared to Tile Mate

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