SEAI Urges Electrical Retailers to Comply Fully With Their Energy Labelling Obligations

The Sustainable Authority of Ireland (SEAI), in its role as the Market Surveillance Authority (MSA), inspected over 17,000 products with energy labels in-store in 2023. It found that 83% of products were compliant. The main non-compliance identified in stores was retailers failing to display any energy labels. The energy label provides consumers with important energy efficiency information at the point of sale.

SEAI also inspected 45 websites selling energy labelled products to Irish consumers and found that more than half had poor levels of compliance. Compliance with visual advertisements is another area where there is room for improvement with 65% of the 34 adverts inspected being non-compliant.

SEAI is the Market Surveillance Authority for energy labelling and ecodesign for products sold on the Irish market. SEAI carries out inspections every year to monitor compliance with EU Energy Labelling Regulations and address non-compliances. It examines products in-store and online, and also looks at advertising.

Tim Stokes, Market Surveillance Programme Manager at SEAI, said,

“Compliance with energy labelling ensures consumers get important information to help them choose the most energy-efficient products, save money on their energy bills and reduce their carbon emissions.”

The levels of non-compliance, particularly online and in visual advertising, are high, and retailers have a responsibility to ensure they understand their obligations. However, there are some reasons for optimism, as non-compliance has reduced across the board compared to 2022.

One of the reasons for this is the level of compliance promotion activity conducted by SEAI in recent years, including the development of retailer guides and videos, which are available on our website. SEAI works collaboratively, and we are always happy to work with retailers and provide you with the support you need to address non-compliance issues.

Additional educational resources are available on the SEAI website:

www.seai.ie/retailerenergylabels.