EU Modifies the Energy Labelling of Products

The EU’s modification of the energy labelling rules for energy-related products has entered into force on 1^st August 2017 with Regulation 2017/1369 (see http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32017R1369&from=EN ) and will eliminate the current three A classes (A+ to A+++)  and re-establish the previous scale of energy efficiency classes, using only the letters from A to G.

The new Regulation

• establishes a new framework for the labelling and the provision of standard product information regarding energy efficiency and energy consumption by products during their use.
• provides the possibility of a future further rescaling of the energy labelling scale, depending on whether, over time and with technological development, a high percentage of the products sold find themselves in the top classes. Rescaling means that the requirements for a particular product group for achieving an energy class on a label are made more stringent.
• as foreseen in previous Directive 2010/30/EU, it empowers the Commission to adopt “delegated acts” to establish the detailed requirements relating to the energy-efficiency labels for specific product groups. As long as the Commission has not yet adopted a new delegated act for a specific product group pursuant to the new Regulation, the requirements laid down in existing delegated acts that were adopted pursuant to Directive 2010/30/EU (or previous Directive 96/60/EC) will continue to apply to the relevant product groups (i.e. air-conditioners, ovens, lighting, fridges, driers, washing machines, televisions and vacuum cleaners).

According to the new Regulation, the Commission is to adopt, by 2 August 2023, new delegated acts under the Regulation in order to introduce a homogenous A to G scale of rescaled labels for each of the product groups covered by delegated acts adopted under Directive 2010/30/EU.

As from 1 January 2019, suppliers that want to place on the market a new model of a product covered by a delegated act first have to enter in the product database specific information on their new model. The product database will be accessible only to the market surveillance authorities of the EU Member States and to the Commission.

For models covered by a delegated act which are placed on the market before 1 January 2019, i.e. in the period between 1 August 2017 and 1 January 2019, the supplier has time until 30 June 2019 to enter the relevant information into the product database. For those models, and until the supplier has entered the relevant information into the database, the supplier has to make available an electronic version of the technical documentation to the market surveillance authorities and to the Commission within 10 days of receiving a request from these authorities or from the Commission.