It had been in the works for a while, but now it has formally been adopted. From the article:
The regulation provides that by 2027 portable batteries incorporated into appliances should be removable and replaceable by the end-user, leaving sufficient time for operators to adapt the design of their products to this requirement.
Apple, Google, LG, Samsung didn’t staple waterproof ratings until ~2016. Even in 2016 it was each of the above’s flagships that were guaranteed to be IP67+.
To say waterproof was common in the removable battery era is just not true. Water resistant wasn’t even that common. You had to go out of your way to get anything that was IP6X rated.
You can go buy a phone that’s IP68 rated with a removal battery right now, Samsung no less. But that’s beside the point. You give a manufacturer additional overheard and they will absolutely use it to justify an increased price that it absolutely unproportional to their cost increase. I’m not trying to make the argument that that’s a good reason against the idea of this. But I am telling you that they will use IP ratings as a price point.
And honestly, I wanna reiterate that as written, every manufacturer already exists comfortably within this law. The tools are easily had and you don’t HAVE to apply thermal energy. You should, but the fact that it CAN be done without is all the manufacturers need to sidestep this.