On Thursday 11 May, the Court of Justice of the EU annulled the ruling of the General Court, which at the end of 2015 had rejected the appeal of British electrical household appliances manufacturer Dyson calling for Regulation 665/2013 on energy labelling for vacuum cleaners to be annulled (see EUROPE 11429).
Dyson, which manufactures bagless vacuum cleaners based on ‘cyclonic’ technology, had appealed against this regulation on the grounds that the test used by the European Commission to measure the energy efficiency levels of vacuum cleaners places Dyson's products at a disadvantage in relation to bagged vacuum cleaners. The Commission's test is carried out on vacuum cleaners with an empty dust receptacle.
Dyson argued that there is a reproducible test that can be carried out with dust-loaded receptacles showing that, in conditions close to the normal use of a vacuum cleaner, traditional vacuum cleaners are less efficient from an energy point of view, due to the soiling of the bags.
The Court of Justice concluded that the General Court had distorted the position taken by Dyson by finding that Dyson had referred only to a single laboratory test making it possible to establish that the dust-loaded receptacle method for testing energy efficiency was reproducible.
The Court also considers that the Commission was obliged, in the framework of contested regulation, to adopt a method of calculation that enables the energy performance of vacuum cleaners to be measured in conditions as close as possible to actual use. In the Court's opinion, the General Court did not sufficiently establish that the dust-loaded receptacle test for vacuum cleaners was not reproducible, and it acknowledges that the empty dust receptacle test may not reflect the normal conditions of use of a vacuum cleaner.
Believing that it is not in a position to give judgement on the question of the reproducibility of tests with dust-loaded receptacles, the Court has referred the case back to the General Court. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)