GEN – 789.00. The EEPLIANT project ran from 2015 and ended on 20 June 2017. Responsible national and regional authority bodies cooperated towards enforcement action in respect of non-compliant products. The following product groups were assessed: LED lamps, imaging equipment, space heaters and combination heater. The outcome of the project regarding space heaters including heat pumps are discussed within this article together with some previous projects.

Objectives EEPLIANT

The objective of EEPLIANT is to help deliver the intended economic and environment benefits of the Energy Labelling and Ecodesign Directives by increasing the rates of compliance with them. The project coordinated and monitored the verification and enforcement activities of 13 Market Surveillance Authorities (MSAs). It enabled an easy entry into these activities for the MSAs as it provided for funding, training and technical support.

Outcome space heaters

The chosen products result from a targeted effort to find non-compliant products. The compliance verification includes document inspections and laboratory testing. The result of this exercise therefore is not representative for the market.

Small gas fired boilers

14 out of 19 small gas boilers were non-compliant for technical documentation (i.e. missing or wrong information). For ten cases, the manufacturers corrected the technical documentation to make it comply with the legislation upon request from the MSAs. Three cases were still in progress at the end of June 2017. For one gas boiler at the end of the product life-cycle, a sales ban took place with limited economic consequences for the manufacturer.

5 out of 10 boilers subjected to laboratory testing were non-compliant. The manufacturers are now in the process of changing the energy label and the product fiche.

Heat pumps

15 out of 19 heat pumps non-compliant for technical documentation. Manufacturers are in the process of correcting the technical documentation as requested by the authorities.

5 out of 7 heat pumps subjected to laboratory testing were found non-compliant for technical parameters. Two cases are still in progress and for the other three heat pumps, the producer agreed to change the energy label and the fiche.

The slides in the EEPLIANT 20 June 2017 final presentation provide insights into the above results. The presentation can be found attached to this article.

National market surveillance activities

EU countries must ensure effective surveillance of their markets. The European Commission obliges the member states to prepare national market surveillances actions. These can be found on the Commission website and give an indication of the areas where surveillance is planned and how previous surveillance actions are evaluated. Overall the effort in the field of Ecodesign and Energy Labelling are limited. In general, the Nordic countries tend to be the most active in these fields both with regards to document verification and laboratory testing. The European Commission is stimulating cooperation amongst member states through informal groups of market surveillance authorities, called Administrative Cooperation Groups (AdCos). In general, there is one joint ADCO meeting on Ecodesign and Energy Labelling. The most recent one took place in April 2017 in Bucharest.

DG GROW in the European Commission is currently preparing a new Market Surveillance of Products Package (2.0) which would consist of two legislative proposals: one on enforcement and compliance, and one on the mutual recognition of goods in the non-harmonised area

Recommended Actions

Associations and manufacturers may wish to check the proposed market surveillance activities in specific countries and the contacts at national level, that can be found through the last link below. 

Related documents and links

All related documents and articles can be found in the respective sections in the right-side bar.

• GEN – 789.01 EEPLIANT 20 June 2017 final presentation (see slides 42 to 48)
• http://eepliant.eu/
• http://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/goods/building-blocks/market-surveillance/organisation_en