Nokia contacted us and explained that the headline was incorrect, and that the "recall" was in fact voluntary. While this may be a little inside baseball for some of you, my question as to what is or is not a recall can not be answered at this time, as the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission is being swamped by recalls of Mattel toys, and I can't reach a spokesperson. For now, we've changed our headline, following Reuters' lead.

EDIT: We reached the CPSC. More details after the jump.

Here's Nokia's explanation, sent as an email from Keith Nowak, a spokesman for the company:

"Let me try to clarify a bit.

"A recall is something that a company and its customers must do - a call to action. In this case, the number of affected products (100 out of a base of 300 million) combined with the mild result of the overheating (an overheated battery combined with the possibility of expansion and the battery then popping out of the phone) meant that there was no immediate need for a recall to be issued.

"However, as a responsible corporate citizen, Nokia felt that consumers should be made aware of the potential (however rare that potential may be) issue with this one batch of Matsushita manufactured batteries. And since some consumers, once made aware of this slight risk, might feel uneasy continuing to use their battery, we decided to make a replacement battery available should the consumer choose to request one.

"The difference is that a recall is something a company has to do. We did not. We simply felt that in this case, it was the right thing to do.

"I hope this helps to clarify the issue."

My question is this: in recent recall of Toshiba laptop batteries, the recall is described as both a recall, as well as "voluntary". The answer, according to a CPSC spokesman, is that while there is no formal recall going on now, the situation is being investigated.

"You don't see unilateral recalls done in this country," the spokesman said. "It must be done in conjunction with our agency."

"This is an issue we are looking into, that we are actively investigating at this time," the CPSC spokesman added. For now, however, he encouraged consumers to be aware of underlying issues surrounding many of the recent laptop battery recalls, from companies like Dell, Lenovo, and Toshiba.