ANTI-Circumvention of Standards for better market Surveillance (ANTICSS)

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 circumvention 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.