EU anti-fraud project on household electrical appliances kicked off

At the start the European project ANTICSS (Anti-Circumvention of Standards for Better Market Surveillance) for new anti-counterfeiting procedures, aimed at ensuring the veracity of the declarations on energy efficiency and functional performances from manufacturers of household electrical appliances. Of the 19 EU partners, three are Italian.

At the start the European project ANTICSS - Anti-Circumvention of Standards for Better Market Surveillance - for new anti-counterfeiting procedures aimed at ensuring the veracity of the declarations of the manufacturers of household appliances on energy efficiency and functional performance. The initiative, born after the so-called "dieselgate", counts among its Italian partners ENEA, the Milan Monza Brianza Lodi Chamber of Commerce and the Italian Institute of Quality Mark (IMQ).

Funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, the project aims at defining and evaluating the "circumvention", i.e. the manipulation of test results on household appliances, in relation to Community legislation on eco-design, energy labeling and measurement methods used during the tests.

Once circumvention is detected in the products concerned by the project, i twill be provided an estimate of  the costs of manipulation in terms of increased energy consumption and altered functional performance.

"The ANTICSS project will allow us to develop a strategy able to identify and prevent the circumvention. This means that it will be possible to evaluate 'if' and 'how much' energy consumption and / or lower functional performance could be attributed to deceptive behaviors, thus protecting consumers and strengthening the credibility of the Community legislation.

Eliminating ambiguities in energy labeling, thanks to eco-design, will also ensure a level playing field for economic players in the market ", Milena Presutto, ENEA researcher at the Unit for Energy Efficiency, explained.

“Our Investigation Service for the Protection of Public Confidence, conducts controls protecting complying companies and intervenes in the case of illegal behaviors.

An action we carry out every day, together with the Ministry of Economic Development, laboratories and technical bodies. The Chamber of Commerce is also equipped with its own laboratories of the company Innovhub - SSI. We believe in a transparent and efficient market, close to the needs of businesses and consumers. This is an action which, among other things, has important positive implications for the saving of natural resources, in favor of a better environment", Beatrice Zanolini, Director of the Milan Chamber of Commerce, Monza Brianza Lodi, pointed out.

" We have been collaborating  profitably for some time with ENEA and the Chamber of Commerce, with whom we share goals and values.

For this new project, we expect significant results, in terms of protection from market distortions, transparency, enhancement of virtuous situations and more generally of the European market, with returns in terms of the environment but also of commercial competitiveness.

As IMQ we will bring our experience in testing activities to allow quantitative assessments but above all to help identify alternative test procedures or control systems to prevent any falsification of the measurements taken”, Stefano Ferrari of the IMQ, said.

Coming from eight EU countries, the partners of the project ANTICSS are a total of 19 research organizations, market surveillance authorities, energy agencies, a standardization body, a university, environmental NGOs and testing laboratories.

For more information please contact:

Milena Presutto, ENEA Energy Efficiency Department Unit, milena.presutto@enea.it