Brussels, 12/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 11 November, the General Court rejected the entire grounds of the appeal by the British household appliances manufacturer, Dyson, against the European Commission regulation setting out energy efficiency levels for vacuum cleaners.
“The vacuum cleaner that does not lose its power to vacuum” is Dyson's slogan and main argument for delegitimising the current European energy labelling system (Regulation 665/2013, completing Directive 2010/30/EU), which seeks to inform consumers about the level of energy efficiency and cleaning performance of their vacuum cleaners.
Dyson designed and manufactured cyclonic bag-less vacuum cleaners. It considers that the test set out by the Commission is unfavourable to its products because it simply measures the performance of cleaning when the vacuum cleaner receptacle is empty and not during its use. The plaintiff argues that if the test were conducted in conditions in which the vacuum cleaner were being used, the vacuum cleaners with bags would be less efficient because of the way they clog up and would therefore demonstrate the technological superiority of the vacuum cleaners without bags.
The Court acknowledges that the suction performance and energy efficiency of a vacuum cleaner with a dust-loaded receptacle will be reduced due to dust accumulation. It observes, however, that the Commission could not use tests conducted on the basis of a dust-loaded receptacle, as they are not “ reliable, accurate and reproducible”, as required by the regulation.
Under the terms of the regulation in question, the Commission is expected to proceed to a re-examination of the provisions on vacuum cleaner tests on the basis of “technological progress” five years, at the latest, after the entry into force of the regulation in question. This re-examination will help work out whether it is possible to calculate the annual energy consumption, dust levels and emissions of dust, with calculating methods based on a receptacle that is partially full rather than empty. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)