On February 2018, the European Commission has invited all interested parties to submit their views on the energy efficiency and eco-labelling of a series of commonly used electric and electronic devices. The European Commission, welcomes the views of stakeholders and citizens alike on the eco-design of refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, household lamps, televisions and computers. The public consultations will inform the ongoing evaluation and will result in the preparation of regulations specific to each product category.
Despite the positive objective to contribute to the energy efficiency and create a level playing field for EU manufacturers of such devices, the new initiative has already shown its dark side. The EU industry is afraid that it will take another hard-financial beating due to increased compliance costs and so are EU consumers. Non-EU manufacturers need to constantly adjust to an ever increasing in complexity matrix of environmental regulations that makes their access to the EU market difficult.
The open consultations will last until May 2018 and the results which will be published shortly after will shape the market of household devices.