Label Compliance

The "Label Compliance" project ensures that the new energy labels for refrigerators and dishwashers work as they should. Therefor, so-called market surveillance campaigns are being carried out in Austria, Bulgaria, Germany and Slovenia, devices tested in laboratories and numerous other measures taken.

This project is dedicated to a comprehensive market surveillance action for the new label regulations for refrigerating appliances (Reg. 2019/2016) and household dishwashers (Reg. 2019/2017).

Key objectives

• Supporting and ensuring compliance of suppliers and retailers and their products with the new labelling legislation for refrigerating appliances and dishwashers
• Efficient detection and removal of cases of non-compliance in a concerted risk-based approach
• Development and testing of efficient approaches for efficient product screening and sampling
• Gaining experience with the new legislation in particular concerning the new EPREL database
• Documentation and evaluation of results from screening, document inspection, shop inspection and laboratory tests and processing of guidelines for MSAs, test labs and other stakeholders
• Policy recommendations concerning potential issues with the specific legislation and standards or potential issues of circumvention
• Development of several tools and guidelines supporting screening, inspection and testing tasks also available to other MSAs.

Project Key Activities

In order to achieve the project objectives a comprehensive market surveillance action will be undertaken in four EU countries (AT, BG, DE, SI) covering all aspects of the new energy labelling legislation.

Among others the action will cover:

• Identification of product segments and product types with significant market share and a higher risk of non-compliance (160 refrigerators and 160 dishwashers)
• Comprehensive EPREL inspection and document inspection with a focus on product types with higher risks based on product screening (60 refrigerators and 60 dishwashers)
• Inspection of 40 physical shops and 80 online shops
• Product testing of 17 refrigerating appliances and 13 dishwashers with a focus on products with higher risks
• Enforcement measures for non-compliant products and securing effective implementation of remedy actions by market actors
• Digestion of experiences and results to guidelines for MSAs, laboratories, suppliers and retailers
• Dissemination of project outputs

The Consortium including MSAs from 4 EU-Member States will design, carry out and evaluate this coordinated market surveillance action.

Funding Body	EISMEA - European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (90% funding)
Project management	Franz Zach (Austrian Energy Agency)
Project team	Austrian Energy Agency (AEA): Consortium leader (Austria) Bundesministerium für Digitalisierung und Wirtschaftsstandort (Austrian MSA) Commission for Consumer protection (Bulgarian MSA) Hessische Eichdirektion (German MSA for Hessen) Trzni Inspektorat RS (Slovenian MSA)
Projekt duration	Mai 2022 - April 2024