Experience with ecodesign and energy labelling market surveillance in Denmark

摘要

Ecodesign and energy labelling regulations are expected to contribute with a large amount of energy savings in the European Union within the next 10 to 20 years. Member States are obliged to carry out market surveillance to ensure that products covered by ecodesign and energy labelling implementing measures are complying with the requirements in the regulations. The number of regulations and products covered will increase in the coming years and this will put larger economic burdens on the Member States. If Member States do not implement appropriate market surveillance there is a risk that the large and cost effective saving potential will not be fully utilized and that the consumers will lose their confidence in the energy labelling and other product information provided by suppliers. Traditionally, market surveillance has largely been based on laboratory measurements. However measurements are quite costly and the costs per test will increase in the future due to more and more complicated test standards. Member states will only be able to supervise a very small fraction of products on the market if the surveillance primarily is based on laboratory testing. On this background there is a need for less costly ways to carry out market surveillance. In Denmark the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) is responsible for the market surveillance. The practical coordination of the market surveillance is carried out by the Secretariat for Ecodesign and Energy Labelling of Products (SEE). SEE has gained valuable experiences in implementing cost effective market surveillance based on inspection of the suppliers’ technical documentation. The document inspection has in many cases been able to demonstrate that the products do not comply with the energy efficiency requirements and/or information requirements in the relevant regulations. The paper will present results of the market surveillance of ecodesign and energy labelling and experiences learned.