BSH has won a ruling in the Dutch courts, brought against the German company by British vacuum cleaner manufacturer Dyson over alleged consumer fraud in relation to the EU label on energy usage.
Dyson took legal action against the Dutch subsidiary of BSH Hausgeräte GmbH, claiming that BSH was misleading consumers about the power consumption of its vacuum cleaners. The court in Amsterdam has now ruled that the information displayed on BSH’s Bosch vacuum cleaners is correct and dismissed the case.
BSH chief executive Karsten Ottenberg commented: “The court stated that Dyson’s accusations were completely baseless and that BSH complies with all stipulations of the EU energy label. Dyson should now accept this and focus on fair competition between the best technologies and products instead of continually initiating to legal action.”
BSH welcomes ruling of the European General Court
Previous to this ruling, on 11 November 2015, the European General Court fully dismissed Dyson’s action concerning the EU label for vacuum cleaners and confirmed the validity of the regulation that was in dispute and was allegedly misleading for consumers. The General Court stated that the procedure currently defined for the EU label was the most suitable means of giving consumers reliable and consistent information. BSH itself was not involved in this action, although Dyson took this EU test procedure as an opportunity to accuse BSH of deceiving consumers, BSH says.
Legal steps against Dyson in the UK
BSH has also confirmed that due to the now refuted accusations on the energy label, BSH is currently taking legal steps against the British company and its owner Sir James Dyson in accordance with the pre-action protocol for defamation under English court procedure. In a separate procedure, in the autumn of 2014, BSH says it was able to prove in several European countries that the British company had stated incorrect ratings on the energy label for its vacuum cleaners. The usage of the energy label with false information was prohibited in Germany by court order and Dyson amended the ratings on the vacuum cleaners throughout Europe, including those models sold in the UK.
Since September 1 2014, every vacuum cleaner sold in the European Union (EU) must have an EU energy label on it. The energy label includes key information including its cleaning power on different floorings, dust retention capacity, noise level, power consumption and energy efficiency class (EEC).
