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EU Parliament confirms extension of energy labelling requirements to advertising
Date: 19/05/2010
On 19 May, the European Parliament finally approved an agreement reached with Member States to amend the Energy Labelling Directive. The new rules extend the requirement to indicate the energy class of products from the label to advertising.
This Directive sets a series of requirements for the labelling of "energy-related products", such as "white goods" (e.g. refrigerators, freezers, washing machines ...) and other products having an impact on energy consumption during use, like windows, insulation materials or showerheads.
The inter-institutional agreement reached in November 2009 stipulates that once the Commission has agreed to apply the Directive to a new category of product (e.g. showerheads), and has allocated "A-G labels" to different models, advertising for these products will have to indicate energy information, including the corresponding label. This requirement will only apply to advertisements "mentioning the energy consumption or price of a specific model ", according to the European Parliament's press release.
This Directive only applies to specific categories of products, to be agreed by the European Commission on a case-by-case basis. While current plans only concern products such as windows or insulation materials, the intention is for future EU legislation to cover all energy-related products in the household, commercial and industrial sectors. This may include household detergents, light bulbs, consumer electronics etc.
Next steps: Once the new rules are published in the Official Journal (probably in June), Member states will have one year to transpose them into national law.
WFA Priorities: WFA will work with its membership to ensure that the new EU rules are transposed accurately and not disproportionately into national implementing legislation.
For more information please contact Malte Lohan [email protected]
