Energy efficiency labelling (Regulation)

The EU Commission wants to improve consumer information by rescaling energy efficiency labelling. The EU label, with its uniform scale of energy efficiency classes, provides a clear indication of how each product affects energy consumption by comparison with similar products.

cepPolicyBrief

The EU label makes it easier for consumers to reduce their energy consumption in accordance with their own wishes and at the lowest possible cost. The abolition of efficiency classes A+ to A+++ improves the informational content of EU labels as consumers perceive the difference between, for example, class C and B differently to that between A+ and A++. However, the requirement that, to begin with, rescaling must be carried out such that no product is permitted to achieve efficiency classes A and B, reduces the informational content of the EU label. The obligation to refer to the efficiency class in all advertising, places a restriction on entrepreneurial freedom without sufficient justification.