BEUC and ANEC comments following the Ecodesign Consultation Forum meeting on vacuum cleaners of 11 December 2023

All Position papers

Published on 04.09.2024

BEUC and ANEC strongly agree that the scope of both the Ecodesign and Energy labelling Regulations for vacuum cleaners should be extended to cordless/battery-operated and robot vacuum cleaners. As these product types are increasingly popular among consumers, it is very important that strict performance, energy and resource efficiency requirements are imposed on these products too. Consumers cannot be expected to have lower expectations in terms of lifetime, repairability, and energy use for battery powered vacuum cleaners than they have for mains-powered models.
We recommend aligning the proposed measures on resource efficiency with the more recent Ecodesign Regulations adopted for smartphones and tablets and tumble dryers. Among other things, we urge the European Commission to introduce requirements on software updates availability for connected products and information requirements on the price of spare parts.
We recommend adopting stricter sound levels, dust-re-emission, and motion resistance requirements to ensure consumers’ health and comfort when using any type of vacuum cleaner.
We support the simplification of the energy label and recommend maintaining it as simple as possible for consumers.
We urge the European Commission to reconsider the level of ambition of the proposed criteria of the repair score, which is currently extremely low. It is crucial to integrate the cost of repair in the score, to make sure this tool is useful for consumers.

04.09.2024 - PDF Document - 249.41 KB

Available in English