Dyson loses EU energy labelling challenge
Dyson has lost a high-profile legal battle aimed at tearing up European energy labelling rules.
The domestic appliance inventor mounted his legal challenge at the European Court of Justice, arguing that as efficiency tests were conducted under dust-less laboratory environments they did not give a true picture of likely real world gains.
Dyson has made great play of his own bagless range of vacuum cleaners, pointing out that they do not lose suction even as they fill with dirt – unlike other devices which still use bags.
In its ruling the court actually agreed with Dyson that the current testing regime was flawed, but dismissed the case on the grounds that Dyson had failed to come up with a realistic alternative testing regime that would produce ‘reliable, accurate and reproducible’ results.
In a statement Dyson said: “It is deplorable that the ECJ endorses tests that don’t attempt to represent in-home use, and we believe this is causing consumers to be misled.
“By this judgment, the ECJ has given its support to unrepresentative tests devised by the commission with a small group of European manufacturers, which in our view disregards the interests of consumers in Europe. The judgment is all the more surprising in view of the revelations about car testing in the VW scandal, where the tests do not reflect real life usage.”
Dyson claimed that independent testing of devices manufactured by Bosch and Siemens showed that they could draw up to 1600W of power in the home when filled with dust – despite being certified to require just 750W of power in the lab.