Annullato il regolamento della Commissione sull’etichettatura energetica degli aspirapolvere (Tribunale dell’Unione europea, 8 novembre 2018)

After a five-year judicial battle with the EU Commission, the British company Dyson, which makes bagless vacuum cleaners, has succeeded in obtaining the annulment of the EU Regulation on energy labelling of vacuum cleaners. This contribution analyses the steps of the litigation, focusing on the final judgment of the EU General Court of November 2018. Since 1 September 2014, all vacuum cleaners sold in the European Union have been subject to a label indicating energy consumption, the requirements of which were specified by the Commission in the Delegated Regulation (EU) No 665/2013 supplementing the Directive on energy labelling (Directive 2010/30/EU). Dyson challenged the Regulation, arguing that it misleads consumers as to the vacuum cleaner’s energy efficiency because the performance is not tested “during use”, but only when the vacuum cleaner has an empty receptacle. According to Dyson, the contested Regulation does not comply with article 10(1) of Directive 2010/30/EU, which requires that the Commission delegated acts accurately inform EU consumers of energy consumption “during use”. In its judgment of November 2018, the General Court reverses a 2015 ruling and upholds Dyson’s arguments, annulling the Regulation. The General Court considers that the information to the consumer on the energy performance of devices “during use” is an essential objective of Directive 2010/30/EU and reflects a political choice of the EU legislature. In order not to disregard an essential element of the Directive, the Commission is obliged to adopt in the delegated Regulation, a calculation method suitable to meet two cumulative conditions: the first is that, in order to measure the energy performance of vacuum cleaners in conditions as close as possible to actual conditions of use, vacuum cleaner’s receptacle must be filled to a certain level; the second is that the method satisfies certain requirements related to the scientific validity of the results obtained and the accuracy of the information provided to consumers. Since the Commission has adopted a calculation method based on an empty receptacle, the General Court states that this method does not comply with the essential elements of the Directive and, therefore, annuls the Regulation in its entirety since the calculation method is not an element which may be severed from the remainder of the Regulation.