The label you drive – what can EU appliance labelling learn from the experience of EU consumer information on the fuel consumption of cars?

Panel: 7. Appliances, product policy and the ICT supply chain

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Author:
Fiona Brocklehurst, Ballarat Consulting, United Kingdom

Abstract

Policy makers and their advisors are developing an increasingly sophisticated understanding of what influences consumer behaviour; this can feed through into the design and use of energy labels. This paper examines one area of research, EU CO2 labelling of cars, to see what aspects might be usefully applied to appliance labelling. While the paper is too late to feed into the latest revision of the EU energy label directive, the findings could be used by Member States (MSs), local government, NGOs and others to frame and support the use of the energy label by providing additional information to consumers in person and online.

There are significant differences between buying new cars and appliances, such as a greater sense of personal identification with the car than a fridge, and the fact that a new appliance is more likely to be a distress purchase. This may seem to make comparisons unhelpful; however, there are many more aspects in common: for example consumers’ use of decision ‘shortcuts’ and the lack of consistency between environmentally positive attitudes and what they purchase.

Further, some of the ideas that have been put forward for appliance labels have already been tried out on a large (MS) scale on car labels. MSs have considerable freedom on what information to include in the EU car label and how to present it,(in contrast to the appliance label which is standardised across the EU). This means that different information has been provided and diverse label designs have been used. For example, running costs may be included and some MSs use absolute rather than relative CO2 performance values on the label – something that some specialists have been advocating for the appliance label.

The paper reviews the different approaches of EU car labelling in different MSs, and contrasts this with the use of labels for appliances. It then explores the extent to which some of these aspects could be usefully transferred to appliance labelling.