Dyson Has Major Energy Rating Legal Win Up Against European Manufacturers

After a big bust up with LG Australia over whose vacuum cleaners is the best for sucking up dirt, Dyson has had a major win in the European Courts in a legal battle over misleading higher efficiency energy ratings.

Sir James Dyson won an appeal over a case that argues European suction tests favour his competitors’ vacuum cleaners.

The doggedly determined Brit inventor who back in 2015, lost a major legal battle in his bid to prove the tests gave misleading higher efficiency ratings to rivals’ appliances.

One brand he singled out as misleading consumers was Bosch.

Dyson successful appealed against a ruling that will now see the claim sent back to the original EU court for judgement.

A spokesperson at Dyson said they were “shocked and delighted”.

Sir James, argued that EU law discriminated in favour of his company’s rivals, which include Germany’s Bosch and Siemens.

His argument rests on the fact that current EU efficiency tests deceive customers because they are conducted when the appliances are operated in “pristine” conditions in laboratories and do not test them in real conditions, where suction may be lost as the bag fills with dust.

Sir James’s appliances are bagless and are sold as cleaners that do not lose suction as they fill up with dust, as do those that use a bag said the BBC.

The European Court of Justice said rules on the efficiency of vacuum cleaners meant ratings should be based on how the devices were used in practice, not just in laboratories, and that the previous court hearing had not heard all the evidence supplied by Sir James at the time.

One of Dyson’s contentions is that as rivals’ cleaners fill with dust, the wattage – used to measure energy efficiency – increases to double the starting level, meaning that appliances rated ‘A’ for efficiency end up as ‘D’ or even ‘E’.

Max Conze, chief executive of Dyson said: “This is a rare and historic win for consumers affirming Dyson’s view that testing must represent performance in the home.

“The European Commission stepped outside their legal framework to make this test irrelevant and misleading to consumers.

Dyson was the only manufacturer to support a cap on motor wattage, the most effective way of reducing energy consumption, promoting greater efficiency. Dyson develops high performance machines for real in-home use.”

The original court ruling in 2015 did accept that “the suction performance and energy efficiency of a vacuum cleaner with a dust-loaded receptacle will be reduced due to dust accumulation” but threw out the case because Sir James could not suggest a new test with which he was happy.

Since September 2014, all vacuum cleaners sold in the EU have been subject to energy labelling requirements.