Article 1Subject matter and scope
1.This Regulation establishes requirements for the labelling and the provision of supplementary product information for electric mains-operated vacuum cleaners, including hybrid vacuum cleaners.
2.This Regulation shall not apply to:
(a)wet, wet and dry, battery operated, robot, industrial, or central vacuum cleaners;
(b)floor polishers;
(c)outdoor vacuums.
Article 2Definitions
In addition to the definitions set out in Article 2 of Directive 2010/30/EU, the following definitions shall apply for the purpose of this Regulation:
‘vacuum cleaner’ means an appliance that removes soil from the surface to be cleaned by an airflow created by underpressure developed within the unit;
‘hybrid vacuum cleaner’ means a vacuum cleaner that can be powered by both electric mains and batteries;
‘wet vacuum cleaner’ means a vacuum cleaner that removes dry and/or wet material (soil) from the surface by applying water-based detergent or steam to the surface to be cleaned, and removing it, and the soil by an airflow created by underpressure developed within the unit, including types commonly known as spray-extraction vacuum cleaners;
‘wet and dry vacuum cleaner’ means a vacuum cleaner designed to remove a volume of more than 2,5 litres of liquid, in combination with the functionality of a dry vacuum cleaner;
‘dry vacuum cleaner’ means a vacuum cleaner designed to remove soil that is principally dry (dust, fibre, threads), including types equipped with a battery operated active nozzle;
‘battery operated active nozzle’ means a cleaning head provided with an agitation device powered by batteries to assist dirt removal;
‘battery operated vacuum cleaner’ means a vacuum cleaner powered only by batteries;
‘robot vacuum cleaner’ means a battery operated vacuum cleaner that is capable of operating without human intervention within a defined perimeter, consisting of a mobile part and a docking station and /or other accessories to assist its operation;
‘industrial vacuum cleaner’ means a vacuum cleaner designed to be part of a production process, designed for removing hazardous material, designed for removing heavy dust from building, foundry, mining or food industry, part of an industrial machine or tool and/or a commercial vacuum cleaner with a head width exceeding 0,50 m;
‘commercial vacuum cleaner’ means a vacuum cleaner for professional housekeeping purposes and intended to be used by laymen, cleaning staff or contracting cleaners in office, shop, hospital and hotel environments, declared by the manufacturer as such in its Declaration of Conformity pertaining to Directive 2006/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council(1);
‘central vacuum cleaner’ means a vacuum cleaner with a fixed (not movable) underpressure source location and the hose connections located at fixed positions in the building;
‘floor polisher’ means an electrical appliance that is designed to protect, smoothen and/or render shiny certain types of floors, usually operated in combination with a polishing means to be rubbed on the floor by the appliance and commonly also equipped with the auxiliary functionality of a vacuum cleaner;
‘outdoor vacuum’ means an appliance that is designed for use outdoors to collect debris such as grass clippings and leaves into a collector by means of an airflow created by underpressure developed within the unit and which may contain a shredding device and may also be able to perform as a blower;
‘full size battery operated vacuum cleaner’ means a battery operated vacuum cleaner which when fully charged, can clean 15 m2 of floor area by applying 2 double strokes to each part of the floor without recharge;
‘water filter vacuum cleaner’ means a dry vacuum cleaner that uses more than 0,5 litre of water as the main filter medium, whereby the suction air is forced through the water entrapping the removed dry material as it passes through;
‘household vacuum cleaner’ means a vacuum cleaner intended for household or domestic use, declared by the manufacturer as such in its Declaration of Conformity pertaining to Directive 2006/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council(2);
‘general purpose vacuum cleaner’ means a vacuum cleaner supplied with a fixed or at least one detachable nozzle designed for cleaning both carpets and hard floors or supplied with both at least one detachable nozzle designed specifically for cleaning carpets and at least one detachable nozzle for cleaning hard floors;
‘hard floor vacuum cleaner’ means a vacuum cleaner supplied with a fixed nozzle designed specifically for cleaning hard floors, or supplied solely with one or more detachable nozzles designed specifically for cleaning hard floors;
‘carpet vacuum cleaner’ means a vacuum cleaner supplied with a fixed nozzle designed specifically for cleaning carpets, or supplied solely with one or more detachable nozzles designed specifically for cleaning carpets;
‘equivalent vacuum cleaner’ means a model of vacuum cleaner placed on the market with the same input power, annual energy consumption, dust pick up on carpet and hard floor, dust re-emission and sound power level as another model of vacuum cleaner placed on the market under a different commercial code number by the same manufacturer.
Article 3Responsibilities of suppliers and timetable
1.Suppliers shall ensure that from 1 September 2014:
(a)each vacuum cleaner is supplied with a printed label in the format and containing the information set out in Annex II;
(b)a product fiche, as set out in Annex III, is made available;
(c)the technical documentation as set out in Annex IV is made available on request to the authorities of the Member States and to the Commission;
(d)any advertisement for a specific model of vacuum cleaner contains the energy efficiency class, if the advertisement discloses energy-related or price information;
(e)any technical promotional material concerning a specific model of vacuum cleaner which describes its specific technical parameters includes the energy efficiency class of that model.
2.The format of the label set out in Annex II shall be applied according to the following timetable:
(a)for vacuum cleaners placed on the market from 1 September 2014 labels shall be in accordance with label 1 of Annex II;
(b)for vacuum cleaners placed on the market from 1 September 2017 labels shall be in accordance with label 2 of Annex II.
Article 4Responsibilities of dealers
Dealers shall ensure that from 1 September 2014:
each model presented at the point of sale bears the label provided by suppliers in accordance with Article 3 displayed on the outside of the appliance or hung on it, in such a way as to be clearly visible;
vacuum cleaners offered for sale, hire or hire-purchase where the end-user cannot be expected to see the product displayed, as specified in Article 7 of Directive 2010/30/EU, are marketed with the information provided by suppliers in accordance with Annex V to this Regulation;
any advertisement for a specific model of vacuum cleaner contains a reference to the energy efficiency class, if the advertisement discloses energy-related or price information;
any technical promotional material concerning a specific model of vacuum cleaner which describes its specific technical parameters includes a reference to the energy efficiency class of the model.
Article 5Measurement methods
The information to be provided under Articles 3 and 4 shall be obtained by reliable, accurate and reproducible measurement and calculations methods, which take into account the recognised state-of-the-art measurement and calculation methods, as set out in Annex VI.
Article 6Verification procedure for market surveillance purposes
Member States shall apply the procedure set out in Annex VII when assessing the conformity of the declared energy efficiency class, cleaning performance classes, dust re-emission class, annual energy consumption and sound power level.
Article 7Revision
The Commission shall review this Regulation in light of technological progress no later than five years after its entry into force. The review shall in particular assess the verification tolerances set out in Annex VII, whether full size battery operated vacuum cleaners should be included in the scope and whether it is feasible to use measurement methods for annual energy consumption, dust pick-up and dust re-emission that are based on a partly loaded rather than an empty receptacle.
Article 8Transitional provision
This Regulation shall apply to water filter vacuum cleaners from 1 September 2017.
Article 9Entry into force
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 3 May 2013.
For the Commission
The President
José Manuel Barroso