Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/826 of 17 April 2023 laying down ecodesign requirements for off mode, standby mode, and networked standby energy consumption of electrical and electronic household and office equipment pursuant to Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Commission Regulations (EC) No 1275/2008 and (EC) No 107/2009 (Text with EEA relevance)

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation establishes ecodesign requirements related to off mode, standby mode, and networked standby energy consumption for the placing on the market or putting into service of electrical and electronic household and office equipment.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

(1) ‘electrical and electronic household and office equipment’ or ‘equipment’ means any energy-related product listed in Annex II which fulfils the following conditions: (a) it is dependent on energy input from the mains power source in order to work as intended; (b) it is designed for use with a nominal voltage rating of 250 V or below;

(2) ‘mains’ means the electricity supply from the grid of 230 (± 10 %) volts of alternating current at 50 Hz;

(3) ‘standby mode’ means a condition where the equipment is connected to the mains power source, depends on energy input from the mains power source to work as intended and provides only one or more of the following functions, which may persist for an indefinite time: (a) reactivation function; (b) reactivation function and only an indication of enabled reactivation function; (c) information or status display;

(4) ‘reactivation function’ means a function that via a remote switch, a remote control, an internal sensor or timer provides a switch from standby mode to another mode, including active mode, providing additional functions;

(5) ‘main function’ means a function delivering the main service(s) for which the equipment is designed, tested and marketed, and which corresponds to the intended use of the equipment;

(6) ‘information or status display’ means a continuous function providing information or indicating the status of the equipment on a display, including clocks. A simple light indicator is not considered a status display;

(7) ‘active mode’ means a condition in which the equipment is connected to the mains power source and at least one of the main functions has been activated;

(8) ‘off mode’ means a condition in which the equipment is connected to the mains power source and is not providing any function, or it is in a condition providing only: (a) an indication of off mode condition; (b) functionalities intended to ensure electromagnetic compatibility under Directive 2014/30/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (¹);

(9) ‘network’ means a communication infrastructure with a topology of links, an architecture, including the physical components, organisational principles, communication procedures and formats (protocols);

(10) ‘networked standby’ means a condition in which the equipment is able to resume a function by way of a remotely initiated trigger from a network connection;

(11) ‘remotely initiated trigger’ means a signal that comes from outside the equipment via a network;

(12) ‘model identifier’ means a code, usually alphanumeric, which distinguishes a specific equipment model from other models with the same trade mark or the same manufacturer’s, importer’s or authorised representative’s name;

(13) ‘equivalent model’ means an equipment model which has the same technical characteristics relevant for the technical information to be provided in accordance with Annex II, but which is placed on the market or put into service by the same manufacturer, importer or authorised representative as another equipment model with a different model identifier;

(14) ‘declared values’ means the values provided by the manufacturer, importer or authorised representative for the stated, calculated or measured technical parameters in accordance with Article 4, for the verification of compliance by the Member State authorities.

Article 3

Ecodesign requirements

The ecodesign requirements are set out in Annex III.

Article 4

Conformity assessment

Where the information included in the technical documentation for that particular model has been obtained, alternatively:

(a) from a model that has the same technical characteristics relevant for the technical information to be provided in accordance with Annex III to this Regulation but is produced by a different manufacturer;

(b) by calculation on the basis of design or extrapolation from another model of the same or a different manufacturer, or both, the technical documentation for a model shall include the details and results of the calculations or extrapolations, the assessment made by the manufacturer to verify the accuracy of the calculations and, where appropriate, the declaration of identity between the models of different manufacturers.

The technical documentation shall include a list of equivalent models referred to in the first and second subparagraph, including the model identifiers.

Article 5

Verification procedure for market surveillance purposes

Member States’ authorities shall apply the verification procedure laid down in Annex V to this Regulation where they perform the market surveillance checks referred to in Article 3(2) of Directive 2009/125/EC.

Article 6

Circumvention and software updates

The manufacturer, importer or authorised representative shall not place on the market equipment designed to be able to detect they are being tested, including by recognising the test conditions or test cycle, and to react specifically by automatically altering their performance during the test to reach a more favourable level for any of the parameters in the technical documentation or included in any of the documentation provided.

The energy consumption of the equipment and any of the other declared parameters shall not deteriorate after a software or firmware update where measured with the same test standard originally used for the declaration of conformity, unless the user explicitly consents to this before the update. No performance change shall occur as result of rejecting the update.

A software update shall not have the effect of changing the equipment’s performance in a way that makes it non-compliant with the ecodesign requirements applicable for the declaration of conformity.

Article 7

Indicative benchmarks

The indicative benchmarks for the best-performing equipment and technologies available on the market at the time of adopting this Regulation are set out in Annex VI.

Article 8

Review

The Commission shall review this Regulation in the light of technological progress and present the results of this review to the Consultation Forum, no later than 9 May 2027.

The review shall in particular assess the appropriateness of:

(a) the requirements for standby, off mode and networked standby;

(b) the requirements for networked standby for HiNA equipment and equipment with HiNA functionality and their distinction with non-HiNA equipment;

(c) including in the scope of this Regulation other relevant product groups, including products used in the services sector;

(d) setting requirements for the battery maintenance mode of battery chargers.

Article 9

Repeal

Regulation (EC) No 1275/2008 is repealed with effect from 9 May 2025.

Regulation (EC) No 107/2009 is repealed with effect from 9 May 2025.

Article 10

Entry into force and application

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from 9 May 2025. However, Article 6 first paragraph shall apply when the Regulation enters into force.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

ANNEX I

1.‘Information technology equipment’ means any equipment which has a main function of either entry, storage, display, retrieval, transmission, processing, switching, or control of data or telecommunication messages, or a combination of those functions, and which can be equipped with one or more terminal ports typically operated for information transfer;

2.‘Domestic environment’ means an environment where the use of broadcast radio and television receivers may be expected within a distance of 10 m of the equipment concerned;

3.‘Network port’ means a wired or wireless physical interface of the network connection located on the equipment through which the equipment can be remotely activated;

4.‘Logical network port’ means the network technology running over a physical network port;

5.‘Physical network port’ means the physical (hardware) medium of a network port. A physical network port can host two or more network technologies;

6.‘Network availability’ means a capability of the equipment to resume functions after a remotely initiated trigger has been detected by a network port;

7.‘Networked equipment’ means equipment that can connect to a network and has one or more network ports;

8.‘Networked equipment with high network availability’ or ‘HiNA equipment’ means equipment with one or more of the following functionalities, but no other, as the main function(s): those of a router, network switch, wireless network access point, hub, modem, VoIP telephone, video phone;

9.‘Networked equipment with high network availability functionality’ or ‘equipment with HiNA functionality’ means equipment that has the functionality of a router, network switch, wireless network access point or combination thereof included, but not being HiNA equipment;

10.‘Router’ means a network device whose main function is to determine the optimal path along which network traffic should be forwarded. Routers forward packets of data from one network to another, based on network layer information (L3);

11.‘Network switch’ means a network device whose main function is to filter, forward and distribute frames based on the destination address of each frame. All switches operate at least at the data link layer (L2);

12.‘Wireless network access point’ means a network device whose main function is to provide IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) connectivity to multiple clients;

13.‘Hub’ means a network device that contains multiple ports and is used to connect segments of a Local Area Network;

14.‘Modem’ means a network device whose main function is to transmit and receive digitally modulated analogue signals over a wired network;

15.‘Printing equipment’ means equipment that generates printed output from electronic input on paper or other media. Printing equipment may provide additional functions, such as scanning and copying and can be marketed as a multifunctional device or a multifunctional product;

16.‘Large format printing equipment’ means printing equipment designed for printing on A2 media and larger, including equipment designed to accommodate continuous-form media of at least 406 mm width;

17.‘Household coffee machine’ means a non-commercial equipment for brewing coffee;

18.‘Drip filter household coffee machine’ means a household coffee machine which uses percolation to extract the coffee;

19.‘Games console’ means equipment which is designed to provide video game playing as its principal function. A games console is typically designed to provide output to an external electronic display as the main game-play display and typically utilises handheld controllers or other interactive controllers as the primary input device. Games consoles typically include central processing unit(s), graphics processing unit(s), system memory, and internal data storage options. Handheld gaming devices, with an integrated display as the main game-play display, and which primarily operate on an integrated battery or other portable power source rather than via a direct connection to the mains, are considered to be a type of games console;

20.‘Motor-operated adjustable furniture’ means furniture that includes motors or actuators and a control unit to adjust height, position or form. Those adjustments are operated by the end-user through cabled and/or wireless controls, via a network or controlled automatically with the use of sensors;

21.‘Motor-operated building element’ means opening or comfort equipment for use in buildings or related structures, excluding ventilation equipment, that can move or rotate, or both, by using input from the mains power source. The motor-operated building element incorporates an electric motor or an actuator and a control unit, and is operated by the end-user through cabled and/or wireless control(s), via a network, or controlled automatically with the use of sensors;

22.‘Media streaming device’ means a hardware device that delivers any media content, live or recorded, to end-user devices over a network and played back in real time;

23.‘Control unit’ means a unit that receives signals from the end-user through cabled and/or wireless control(s), via a network, or from sensors, and enables the required operation of the motor or actuator of the motor-operated building element. Sensors connected to the unit and receiving power from the same mains input point as the rest of motor-operated building element are considered part of the control unit.

ANNEX II

1.Appliances designed, tested and marketed for household use:

— clothes dryers but excluding household tumble dryers covered by Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2533 (²);

— electric ovens including when incorporated in cookers;

— electric hobs and hot plates;

— microwave ovens;

— toasters;

— fryers;

— coffee machines;

— grinders used in the kitchen for the processing of food;

— equipment for opening or sealing containers or packages;

— electric knives;

— other appliances for cooking and other processing of food, preparing beverages, cleaning, and maintenance of clothes, but excluding household dishwashers covered by Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/2022 (³), household washing machines and household washer-dryers covered by Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/2023 (⁴) and household tumble dryers covered by Regulation (EU) 2023/2533;

— appliances for hair cutting, hair drying, hair treatments, tooth brushing, shaving, massage and other body care appliances;

— scales.

2.Information technology equipment intended primarily for use in the domestic environment, including printing equipment, but excluding desktop computers, integrated desktop computers and notebook computers covered by Commission Regulation (EU) No 617/2013 (⁵), servers and data storage products covered by Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/424 (⁶), as well as electronic displays covered by Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/2021 (⁷).

3.Consumer equipment:

— radio sets;

— video cameras;

— video players;

— hi-fi players;

— audio amplifiers;

— audio speakers;

— home theatre systems;

— media streaming devices;

— musical instruments;

— complex set top boxes and simple set-top boxes;

— other equipment for the purpose of recording or reproducing sound or images, including signals or other technologies for the distribution of sound and image other than by telecommunications, but excluding electronic displays covered by Regulation (EU) 2019/2021, cordless phones covered by Regulation (EU) 2023/1669, and projectors with mechanisms for exchanging the lenses with others with different focal length.

4.Toys, leisure and sports equipment:

— electric trains or car racing sets;

— games consoles;

— sports equipment;

— other toys and leisure equipment.

5.Motor-operated adjustable furniture:

— height-adjustable desks;

— elevation beds and chairs, excluding medical devices and wheelchairs;

— other motor-operated adjustable furniture.

6.Motor-operated building elements:

— shutters;

— blinds;

— screens;

— awnings;

— pergolas;

— curtains;

— doors;

— gates;

— windows;

— skylights;

— other motor-operated building elements.

ANNEX III

1.Energy efficiency requirements:

(a) Power consumption in off mode: Power consumption of equipment in off mode shall not exceed 0,50 W. Two years after the application of this Regulation, the power consumption of equipment in off mode shall not exceed 0,30 W.

(b) Power consumption in standby mode: The power consumption of equipment in any condition providing only a reactivation function, or providing only a reactivation function and an indication of enabled reactivation function, shall not exceed 0,50 W. The power consumption of equipment in any condition providing only information or status display, or providing only a combination of reactivation function and information or status display, or providing only a reactivation function and an indication of enabled reactivation function and information or status display shall not exceed 0,80 W. Networked equipment that has one or more standby modes shall comply with the requirements for those standby modes when all wired network ports are disconnected and all wireless network ports are deactivated.

(c) Power consumption in networked standby: The power consumption of HiNA equipment or equipment with HiNA functionality, in networked standby shall not exceed 8,00 W. Two years after the application of this Regulation, the power consumption of HiNA equipment or equipment with HiNA functionality in networked standby shall not exceed 7,00 W. The power consumption of networked equipment, other than HiNA equipment or equipment with HiNA functionality, in networked standby shall not exceed 2,00 W. The power consumption limits shall not apply to: — large format printing equipment; — desktop thin clients, workstations, mobile workstations, and small-scale servers as defined in Regulation (EU) No 617/2013.

2.Functional requirements:

(a) Availability of off mode and standby mode: Unless this is inappropriate for the intended use, equipment shall provide one or more of the following conditions: — off mode, — standby mode, — another condition which does not exceed the applicable power consumption requirements for off mode or standby mode when the equipment is connected to the mains power source.