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ANTICSS - ANTI-Circumvention of Standards for better market Surveillance

Project description

Preventing the circumvention of standards to make products more credible

EU eco-design and energy labelling legislation is intended to enhance the energy efficiency of products sold in Europe. However, labelling on some products can be misleading due to manipulations in design that alter product properties and behaviour in test situations. This makes them appear to comply with set standards. The EU-funded ANTICSS project will investigate whether such manipulations to dodge standards are permissible according to EU legislation and provide policy recommendations to mitigate future instances. This will be achieved by clearly defining the term circumvention relevant to existing standards and legislation, analysing circumvention case studies and reviewing existing EU legislation for potential ambiguities.

Objective

"ANTICSS objectives are (i) to assess and define ""circumvention"" in order to achieve a better product positioning in relation to EU Ecodesign and Energy labelling legislation and relevant harmonised standards; this includes clear delimitation from other effects to facilitate unambiguous public (media) communication; (ii) to collect, analyse and learn from cases of circum¬vention by literature research and dedicated expert interviews, as well as analysing existing EU Ecodesign and Energy labelling legislation and standardisation for possible loopholes. The potential relation between circumvention and ""smart"" products with specific embedded software will be also addressed. From these findings, conclusions how to better detecting and preventing future circumvention will be derived; (iii) to assess impacts 'if' and 'how much' energy consumption and/or functional performance modifications could be ascribed to circumvention by conducting appliance testing; (iv) to define alternative test procedures or check lists with the aim to by-pass any possible measurement circumvention; based on the results ANTICSS will ensure sustainability beyond the project life by (v) practical capacity building measures for key actors of market surveillance and test laboratories, (vi) supporting communication and collaboration platforms between major stakeholders and (vii) providing policy recommendations for policy makers and standardisation bodies to prevent future circumvention under EU Ecodesign and Energy labelling. ANTICSS will also provide reliability to manufacturers by specifying potentially vague legislation and standards which might be interpreted differently by market actors and some of them taking unfair advantages so far. By overall awareness raising on circumvention among stakeholders, ANTICSS will be supporting an effective EU legislation enforcement and thus increasing acceptance and trust of market actors and civil society into the Ecodesign and Energy labelling legislation."

Call for proposal

H2020-EE-2016-2017

See other projects for this call

Sub call

H2020-EE-2017-CSA-PPI

Coordinator

OEKO-INSTITUT E.V. - INSTITUT FUER ANGEWANDTE OEKOLOGIE
Net EU contribution
€ 334 343,75
Address
Merzhauser Strasse 173
79100 Freiburg
Germany

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Region
Baden-Württemberg Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau, Stadtkreis
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost
€ 334 343,75

Participants (18)