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Energy, Climate change, Environment
Energy Efficient Products

Suppliers

What do suppliers need to know?

Over the years, industry has been able to work with EU policy objectives establishing a ‘win-win’ scenario for all actors: this thanks to a longstanding industry commitment to developing and implementing Ecodesign and Energy Labelling legislation to establish more and more energy-efficient, durable, reusable, repairable and recyclable products.

Both Ecodesign and Energy Labelling have been an overwhelming success for manufacturers to accomplish environmental, energy efficiency, and decarbonisation objectives for energy-related products.

Industry has shown capacity to make more durable products and prolong their lifespan. The EU energy label has stimulated competition, with manufacturers investing in innovation to have the newest models appear in the highest performance classes.

EU energy labels (home appliance store)

User Guide for Suppliers

This manual is intended to guide suppliers of energy related products, in the scope of the Energy Labelling Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 and of the Tyre Labelling Regulation (EU) 2020/740, in the preliminary steps required before starting registering product models in EPREL, i.e.:

(a) the User Profile creation 

(b) the Organisation Profile creation 

(c) the Organisation Electronic Verification 

(d) the Product Models creation and management 

(e) File Upload and System-to-System delivery registration 

  • 5 NOVEMBER 2024
EPREL user guide
English
(10.69 MB - PDF)
Download

The steps illustrated in this guideline are mandatory and represent a pre-requisite step before starting your product registration process, as required by the regulations above mentioned.

What to document?

As a supplier, you are responsible for documenting that your product complies with the applicable requirements. This can be inspected by the national market surveillance authorities (MSAs).

It is therefore important that you are aware of and knowledgeable about the following:

  • CE-mark
  • Energy label and product information sheet
  • Technical documentation
  • DoC, DoI and equivalent models
  • Values
  • Testing methods

The Blue Guide

What to consider, when introducing your product on the market

In the Ecodesign and Energy Labelling legislation, the following terms are frequently used: 

Roles and Obligations

Ecodesign legislation and obligations of manufacturers

For a precise understanding of these obligations, please consult the legislative text of the Ecodesign Directive 2009/125/EC and the specific implementing measures for the products groups in the scope of the legislation.

You may find useful answers to possible outstanding or pressing questions in the specific FAQ sections for suppliers.

Energy Labelling legislation and obligations of suppliers

For a precise understanding of these obligations, please consult the text of the Energy Labelling Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 and the specific delegated measures for the products groups in the scope of the legislation. Please consult the specific section for a complete list of products in the scope of the Energy Labelling legislation. 

You may find useful answers to possible outstanding or pressing questions in the specific FAQ sections for suppliers.

The obligations of suppliers towards dealers

  • The supplier shall deliver you the electronic version of the label and the product information sheet. 
  • The supplier shall deliver every single product to you with a copy of the label in the correct format. 
  • If you request an energy label and/or a product information sheet from the supplier, the supplier shall provide this within five working days. 
  • In order to facilitate the display of labels or its class and range, including in online distance selling, in visual advertisement, in technical promotional material and on the internet, suppliers shall communicate the EPREL model registration number to dealers or to distributors, as applicable (Art. 14 of the EPREL Implementing Act)
  • To allow for the consultation of a model’s registration in EPREL, the dealer or the distributor shall ensure that the QR code is readable when putting a product model or tyre in display for sale (Art. 14 of the EPREL Implementing Act)

To avoid that you have to attach the energy label to the product with adhesive tape (which often leads to non-readable QR codes), suppliers shall deliver the energy labels as stickers, if appropriate for the product (e.g. for light sources, the label must be on the packaging).

EPREL Implementing Act   

Economic operators (who does what?)

Within the context of Ecodesign and Energy Labelling, a network of economic actors collaborates to ensure the efficient and sustainable use of energy resources. These actors play distinct roles and contribute to the overall effectiveness of these regulatory frameworks.

Find more information here below about their roles and responsibilities:

What is EPREL?

As of 1 January 2019, Suppliers need to register their product models submitted to energy label obligations, in the 'product database',  before placing on the Union market the first product of a model in the scope of the Labelling legislation.

The 'product database', established in application of Article 12 of the Energy Labelling Regulation, is designated as  'EPREL' (European Product Registry for Energy Labelling).

Suppliers have to upload models data in a 'Compliance system':

  • the public information, becoming later available as "Product information Sheet" (or "Product Fiche", as called in the repealed Directive Directive 2010/30/EU)  and as "energy label" from a different 'Public system 
  • The compliance-related data, referred to in the legislation as "technical documentation", that will be only accessible, on a need-to-know basis by compliance control authorities to perform their duties of market surveillance.

The public model information is intended for facilitating purchase choice, both by common citizens and in bulk purchases, as in green public procurement. This data is also used to set eligibility criteria where the highest performance classes (e.g. the top class or the highest two classes) are targeted, such as in the Green Taxonomy or for incentives or VAT reduction measures at national level or for other data-analysis needs.

View more info on EPREL

Access EPREL

EPREL is hosted by the European Commission. The system where models have to be registered, known as Compliance EPREL system is hosted in a secured network and is completely different from the Public EPREL system, for free consultation, that is only mirroring the public information part (updated on a daily basis).

To access the Compliance system, a user has to first create an account in the Commission environment, called EU Login.

In short, the preliminary steps (EPREL User Guide for Suppliers, p.19), to be executed once, involve:

  1. EU-Login user account creation 
  2. Organisation creation (by such EU Login, then becoming the top Supplier Admin(istrator) for that supplier)
  3. (optional) Invitation of additional users (that can get different roles, with different access rights as attributed by the Supplier Admin)
  4. Passing the Supplier Verification Process, (to be executed by the Supplier Admin, once).

Only after the completion of the above mentioned steps, product models can be registered.

In a transitional phase, it has been possible to register product models without having passed the 'Supplier verification', however from 22 October 2024 this is not possible anymore. 

Register a model in EPREL

Since 1 January 2019, suppliers (manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives established in the EU and EEA (Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein)) must register products required to have an EU energy label in the EPREL database before placing them on the EU market. As part of the Northern Ireland (XI) Protocol under the UK withdrawal agreement from the EU, these rules also apply in Northern Ireland as well (after 1 January 2021). 

Manufacturers established in third countries (i.e. outside EU/EEA and XI) need an importer or an authorised representative established in one of the countries/territories mentioned above to register their products.

Once the supplier organisation has been created in EPREL and it has been electronically verified, then product models can be registered. 

For a detailed, step by step, description of the process, please consult the more detailed EPREL User Guide for Suppliers (p.94). A wiki also offers detailed instructions on how to manage the registration process in EPREL.

 

Public SystemCompliance System
Browse modelsRegister models

Kindly note that there are no registration costs required!

Suppliers verification

To ensure that the information entered and published in EPREL is genuine and from reliable source, before registering models, suppliers need to pass a verification process where both their identity and their establishment in the Union is electronically verified. The establishment in the Union is a requirement enshrined in the Labelling Regulation and necessary to enforce compliance by national Member State Authorities performing market surveillance and in line with the Product Liability Directive requiring that there is always an economic operator within the EU from whom a victim can claim compensation, including for products sold through online platforms.

For a detailed, step by step, description of the process, please consult the more detailed EPREL User Guide for Suppliers (p.44)

Verification of Suppliers: Main deadlines

Legal Persons

  1. 22/10/2024
    Suppliers verification becomes mandatory
    • To register or perform any editing of registered models, suppliers have to be already verified (Article 3)
    • Models registered by suppliers still not verified after this date are not listed in searches anymore, are not retrievable via APIs and only appear if the registration number is entered (typing the number or via QR reading), (Article 7)
    • Any "identity type" accepted in a transitional period (NTR, VAT, LEI, PSD, xx:) (Article 6.1 derogating Article 4)
  2. 22/04/2025
    National trade/business registration code into the seals becomes mandatory
    • electronic seals with 'NTR' (National Trade/business registration) is the only identity type accepted from this date (Article 4, end of derogation as from Article 6.1).  No end of validity set for these seals (unless differently regulated by a future regulation)
    • Verifications using seals with VAT, LEI, PSD and  xx: identity types completed before this date remain valid (Article 7.1), but only until 22/04/2027 (Article 7.2)
  3. 22/04/2027
    End of validity for any verification not including the national trade/business registration code
    • Verifications completed, before 22/4/2025, using seals with VAT, LEI, PSD and xx: identity types need to be renewed and the national trade/business registration code needs to be provided and verified using seals with the "NTR" identity type (Article 6.2)

Natural Persons

  1. 22/10/2024
    Verification becomes mandatory

    Digitally signed Business/trade Certificate to be provided (Articles 5.3.a and 5.3.b)

    Trademark authorisation by the owner to be provided (Articles 5.3.c)

List of Trust Service Providers (QTSP)

The Member States of the European Union and European Economic Area publish trusted lists of qualified trust service providers (QTSP) in accordance with the eIDAS Regulation. A complete list, managed by the European Commission of all EU/EEA Qualified Trust Service Provides is available via the eIDAS dashboard.

A number of QTSP  that have explicitly declared their support for delivering the 'specific' desired service for EPREL are listed below. Providers not in this list are anyhow, in principle, qualified for providing the required service.

QTSPs willing to be included in this list can provide all details writing to EC-EFFICIENT-PRODUCTS-PORTALatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (EC-EFFICIENT-PRODUCTS-PORTAL[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu).

List of Trust Service Providers having confirmed services for delivery of qualified seals according to modalities and formats for EPREL supplier verification:

Please recall that this is an open market: any provider, in principle, established in any country may provide the service to a supplier in a different country (limitations, if any, are indicated in the table).

Technical standards

Suppliers may enjoy presumption of conformity as regards the measurement standards or methods used to assess compliance if they apply harmonised standards, the reference numbers of which have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Check the list of such standards harmonised in relation to ecodesign and energy labelling.

More Energy Labelling Tools

The EPREL database generates all energy labels based on the data that suppliers entered when registering their product models. Every product is available from a model description page in EPREL, where labels and product information sheets can be viewed and downloaded. These labels are also available in high resolution and vectorial format for use by professionals. Access to the models description page is possible in these ways

  • for products that have the new labels, (dishwashers, washing machines, washer-dryers, electronic display, domestic refrigerators, commercial refrigerators, vehicle tyres and light sources) with a QR code, by simply scanning the code.
  • by entering the model identifier (and or the trademark) in the search page for each product group in EPREL
  • via Application Programming Interfaces (API): this modality is suggested for on-line stores that have the obligation to display label and product information sheets close to the price indication. Further guidance and information on the syntax of APIs is available in the EPREL wiki (EU login required).

As the registration of products is mandatory, manual generation of labels is only intended to 'reproduce' labels for specific graphical needs (e.g. brochures or printouts on boxes): energy label templates are available for this purpose (InDesign and other file formats).

Read more about the creation, format and printing of the energy label.

Useful links

Commission Notice on the implementation of EU product groups C/2016/1958, The ‘Blue Guide’: this notice provides clarifications on a number of concepts and terms such as 'making available on the market', 'placing on the market', 'CE marking', 'conformity assessment', market surveillance', etc.

List of products in the scope of Ecodesign or Energy Labelling legislation: this page provides a complete list of the regulated products. Some are only regulated by Ecodesign and do not involve registration into the EPREL database. Some are also or only regulated by Energy Labelling legislation, involving registration obligations.

The Framework Labelling Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 setting a framework for Energy Labelling 

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/994 laying down operational details of the product database established under Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 (Note : In connection with the publication the layout of point 3c in Art. 5 had become misaligned. A corrigendum has been published on 4 October 2024 under the unique number 2024/90603.)

CircaBC label templates repository