Start of the ANTICSS project: Anti-Circumvention of Standards for better market Surveillance

The topic of manipulated testing results, or “circumvention” is currently exposed to the highest attention of the public and media, not only for the emission of cars (dieselgate) but also with regard to other EU legislation. For this reason the project “ANTICSS – Anti-Circumvention of Standards for better market Surveillance” has been funded by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme Its objectives are to define and assess "circumvention" in relation to EU Ecodesign and Energy labelling legislation and their harmonised standards.

“By overall awareness raising on circumvention among stakeholders, ANTICSS is expected to support an effective EU legislation enforcement and thus increasing acceptance and trust of market actors, consumers and civil society specifically into the Ecodesign and Energy labelling legislation”, Kathrin Graulich, project manager at Oeko-Institut, Germany, states.

ANTICSS will collect, analyse and learn from cases of circumvention by literature research, dedicated expert interviews, as well as by systematic analysis of existing EU Ecodesign and Energy labelling legislation and standards for possible loopholes. The potential relation between circumvention and "smart" products with specific embedded software is also addressed.

ANTICSS will provide a clear definition of circumvention including delimitation from other effects to facilitate the identification of circumventing habits and unambiguous technical and public communication. Further, for selected product categories, independent test laboratories will be conducting tests to assess 'if' and 'how much' energy consumption and/or functional performance modifications could be addressed to circumvention. Where appropriate, the project team will propose alternative test procedures or check lists, with the aim to prevent any possible circumvention as well as recommendations to overcome ambiguities and loopholes in Ecodesign and energy labelling legislation and standards.

As a result, ANTICSS will provide practical capacity building measures for market surveillance authorities and test laboratories, support communication and collaboration between major stakeholders and recommendations for policy makers and standardisation bodies to better detect and prevent future circumvention.

The ANTICSS project team consists of 19 organisations from 8 EU Member States: research organisations, Market Surveillance Authorities, energy agencies, standardisation body, university, environmental NGO, and independent test laboratories. 

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Project website: www.anti-circumvention.eu