The European Commission has agreed on and adopted the final format and visual identity of new energy efficiency labels. The labels will be applied to five household product groups and one commercial product groups and will be visible for consumers as of 1 March 2021. An EU-wide information campaign will precede the launch in early 2021.
The household groups with the rescaled labels are:
- Dishwashers
- Washing machines and washer-dryers
- Refrigerators
- Lamps
- Electronic displays, including TV monitors and digital signs
There will also be a new labelling group for commercial fridges used in shops and vending machines.
New EU energy labels for washing machines
New EU energy labels for washing machines
A new element to the labels is a QR code. Consumers can use their smartphones to scan the codes and get additional information. To help consumers further understand the changes, the private sector and NGOs are currently developing apps to further assist in the buying experience, by helping to calculate appliance running costs, for example.
The labels, product depending, will display energy consumption as well as other energy and non-energy related information, using pictograms to aid product comparison and offer a better informed purchase choice. For example, washing machines labels will contain information about water consumption, noise emission and storage capacity.
The current model of energy labelling has been in place since 1995 and has become an integral part of the consumer experience when purchasing white and electrical goods. It has also been credited with driving up industry standards. The 1995 labels awarded a high-efficiency product with a grade A and a low-efficiency one with a grade G.
Consumer groups have long complained, however, that the labelling was subject to high levels of influence from industry groups, resulting in inaccurate labelling and a distortion of the system as new A+, A++ and A+++ labels were added. For example, if a product was awarded a grade C, appliance makers tended to object as the grade had become synonymous with a failing grade. Before long, less and less products were being awarded B or C grades and critics began to claim that the system was no longer representative.
The European Commission's official explanation of this phenomenon was that new product standards were progressively higher and higher until no new products in the lowest classes were commercially available. In other words, the labelling system had become a victim of its own success.
As a consequence, the Commission has now decided to revert back to the A to G labelling scale, and to incorporate into that a process for rescaling existing labels.
Another aspect of the new labelling system is the introduction of an online database, allowing for greater transparency and easier market surveillance. An estimated 10-25% of commercially available products do not comply with energy efficiency regulations leading to a 10% loss of energy savings.
All manufacturers will have to register their products on the database along with technical specifications and documentation. Labelling and key product information will also be available online to consumers and vendors, allowing for digitalisation of the energy labels.
Consumer groups and environmentalist are generally welcoming the new labels though some have said that it does not go far enough.
"We're pleased that the EU is finally fixing the flaws of the current energy label, starting with five products that most consumers own at home," said director general of European Consumer Association BEUC, Monique Goyens. "It was high time we went back to the unambiguous A-G label to drive consumers to buy less energy-guzzling washing machines or fridges and save money."
“It’s a good step forward to reinforce Europe’s pioneering labelling scheme, which steers consumers towards the best products, cuts energy bills and boosts innovation,” said Chloé Fayole of the environmental campaign group ECOS. “However, until durability and repairability information is also included, the label will remain incomplete.”
The European Commission has said that some of this information will be covered in a separate regulation covering ecodesign that will come into force in July 2019. The legislation will cover spare parts, and replaceability as well as giving access to repair and maintenance information.
The appliance industry also welcomed the changes but said that it wanted to be sure that consumers fully understood the new labels. Director General of European home industry appliance association APPLiA, Paolo Falcioni said: "For nearly 30 years, the energy label has been helping Europeans to take the right decision when choosing their appliance. We need impactful communication on the upcoming change, in particular to avoid that a project made to better inform consumers results in confusing them."
A number of non-EU countries have created their own labelling system in alignment with that of the EU including Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, Iceland, Iran, Norway, South Africa and Russia.
Energy labelling countries
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