Dyson v. BSH: Are Additional Labels required on the Packaging?

August 21,2018:

Dyson a British technology company which designs and manufactures household appliances filed a lawsuit in the European Court of Justice against BSH the largest manufacturer of home appliances in Europe for unfair and misleading label comparison in their BSH Home Appliances.

The major friction aroused regarding the several labels describing the energy consumption of vacuum cleaners.

BSH's tests were carried out with an empty dust bag, while Dyson's products are based on a technology which works without dust bags so that there is no loss of energy efficiency during normal conditions of use.

But, BSH's vacuums do have a dust bag, Dyson argued that the vacuum cleaner becomes more energy inefficient the more the dust bag is filled, therefore, if an empty bag while conducting tests the test results would mislead the consumer. Dyson sought to force BSH to specify its testing conditions on its energy labels, or for its current energy labels to be declared misleading.

The judges concluded that BSH should not include additional test procedures on its labels and it is not necessary to consider whether BSH's current practice is misleading.

The court criticized BSH for using additional labels which the court felt was not required, indicating the energy consumption of its products, such as adding an orange sticker saying “AAAA Best rated”.

Further, the court added “Using a distinct graphic could give the impression that they convey different information,”, thus, leaving it to the regional courts to decide whether or not such display risked misleading consumers.

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