Voluntary ecodesign scheme for imaging equipment

Policy Details

The voluntary agreement concluded by the industry lays down specific ecodesign requirements for imaging equipment placed on the EU market. The products covered by the agreement are also subject to the ENERGY STAR voluntary energy labelling programme, which lays down energy labelling requirements for different office equipment, including imaging equipment. As required by the Ecodesign Directive, the signatories to this voluntary scheme represent a large majority of the relevant economic sector. Under the agreement, each signatory undertook that at least 90 % of all imaging equipment models it places on the market would comply with the minimum efficiency requirements in terms of TEC (typical energy consumption) and OM (operational mode). Furthermore, all printing products should offer the ‘N-up printing’ capability as a standard feature and should comply with the requirements for cartridges (e.g. the design should not prevent the reuse/recycling and use of cartridges of other producers). All new products should also comply with the requirements for recycling (e.g. easy disassembly and marking of plastics). Finally, the signatories undertook to comply with the specific information requirements (e.g. information on resource and energy efficiency).