S.I. No. 671/2022 - European Union (Ecodesign Requirements for Certain Energy - Related Products) (Amendment) Regulations 2022

1. (1) These Regulations may be cited as the European Union (Ecodesign Requirements for Certain Energy-related Products) (Amendment) Regulations 2022.

(2) These Regulations come into operation on 15th December 2022.

2. In these Regulations-

“Principal Regulations” means the European Union (Ecodesign Requirements for Certain Energy-related Products) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 (S.I. 454 of 2013).”

3. (1) Regulation 2(1) of the Principal Regulations is amended by inserting the following

“Compliance Direction” means a direction under Regulation 12

“distributor” means any natural or legal person in the supply chain, other than the manufacturer or the importer, who makes a product available on the market;

“economic operator” means the manufacturer, the authorised representative, the importer, the distributor, the fulfilment service provider or any other natural or legal person who is subject to obligations in relation to the manufacture of products, making them available on the market or putting them into service in accordance with the Ecodesign Directive and/or relevant EU Measures;

“fulfilment service provider” means any natural or legal person offering, in the course of commercial activity, at least two of the following services: warehousing, packaging, addressing and dispatching, without having ownership of the products involved, excluding postal services as defined in point 1 of Article 2 of Directive 97/67/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council

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, parcel delivery services as defined in point 2 of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2018/644 of the European Parliament and of the Council

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, and any other postal services or freight transport services;

“information society service provider” means a provider of a service as defined in point (b) of Article 1(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/1535 of the European Parliament and of the Council

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;

“Market Surveillance Authority” has the meaning given to it by Regulation 3A;

“Market Surveillance Regulation” means Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019

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on market surveillance and compliance of products and amending Directive 2004/42/EC and Regulations (EC) No 765/2008 and (EU) No 305/2011

“online interface” means any software, including a website, part of a website or an application, that is operated by or on behalf of an economic operator, and which serves to give end users access to the economic operator’s products;

“person in charge” means in relation to a place-

(a) the person under whose direction and control the activities at that place are being conducted, or

(b) the person who the authorised officer has reasonable grounds for believing is the person referred to in subparagraph (a);

“place” means any premises, land or means of transport that the economic operator in question uses for purposes related to the economic operator’s trade, business craft or profession;

“recall” means any measure aimed at achieving the return of a product that has already been made available to the end user;

“record” includes any memorandum, book, report, statement, register, plan, chart, map, drawing, specification, diagram, pictorial or graphic work or other document, any photograph, film or recording (whether of sound or images or both), any form in which data (within the meaning of the Data Protection Acts 1988 to 2018) are held, any form (including machine-readable form) or thing in which information is held or stored manually, mechanically or electronically, and anything that is a part or copy, in any form, or any combination of the foregoing.

“SEAI” means the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland established under the

Sustainable Energy Act, 2002

;

“withdrawal” means any measure aimed at preventing a product in the supply chain from being made available on the market”

(2) Regulation 2 of the Principal Regulations is further amended by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (2)

“The provisions of the

Interpretation Act 2005

shall apply for the purposes of the interpretation of these Regulations, except insofar as a contrary intention appears in these Regulations.”

4. The Principal Regulations are amended by the insertion before Regulation 4 of the following

“

Designation of the Market Surveillance Authority

3A(1) For the purposes of implementing these regulations SEAI, including its employees and agents, is designated the Market Surveillance Authority by the State pursuant to Article 10 of the Market Surveillance Regulation.

(2) All functions that were previously vested in the Minister as the designated Market Surveillance Authority in the State pursuant to Article 10 of the Market Surveillance Regulation are transferred to SEAI.”

5. The Principal Regulations are amended by the insertion before Regulation 4 of the following

“

3B Recovery of costs by SEAI

(1) SEAI shall be entitled to recover the totality of the costs of its activities arising from non-compliance with the Market Surveillance Regulation, EU Measures or these Regulations.

(2) The costs referred to in paragraph (1) of this Regulation may include the costs of carrying out testing, document inspection, the costs of taking measures in accordance with Article 28(1) and (2) of the Market Surveillance Regulation, the costs of storage and the costs of activities relating to listed products that are found to be non-compliant and are subject to corrective action prior to their release for free circulation or their placing on the market.

(3) SEAI may charge a fee (the ‘appropriate fee’) which shall be equal to the amount which it incurs or estimates it will incur in, or in connection with, carrying out or causing to be carried out the functions referred to in the Market Surveillance Regulations, EU Measures or these Regulations in respect of the listed products concerned.

(4) Where the costs incurred are greater than the appropriate fee, the difference between those costs and that fee shall be payable by the economic operator to the Market Surveillance Authority, and where those costs are less than the appropriate fee, the difference between those costs and the fee shall be repayable by the Market Surveillance Authority to the economic operator.”

6. The Principal Regulations are amended by the substitution of the following for Regulation 4

“

Restriction on energy-related product

4(1) A manufacturer, an authorised representative, an importer or a fulfilment service provider shall not place a listed product on the market or put a listed product into service unless the listed product

(a) complies with the applicable EU measure, and

(b) bears the CE marking

(2) A person who contravenes paragraph (1) shall be guilty of an offence.”

6A. (1) An economic operator in respect of a listed product, whether a manufacturer, authorised representative, importer, or fulfilment service provider, shall comply with the obligations set out in this regulation and in Articles 4 and 5 of the Market Surveillance Regulation.

(2) An economic operator shall comply with its obligation to cooperate with the market surveillance authority in the State as set out in Article 7(1) of the Market Surveillance Regulation.

(3) An information society service provider shall comply with its obligation to cooperate with the market surveillance authority in the State as set out in Article 7(2) of the Market Surveillance Regulation.

(4) A listed product offered for sale online or through means of distance sales shall be deemed to be made available on the market if the offer is targeted at end users in a Member State. An offer for sale shall be considered to be targeted at end users in a Member State if the relevant economic operator directs, by any means, its activities to that Member State.”

7. The Principal Regulations are amended by the insertion before Regulation 7 of the following

“

Obligations of economic operators and information society service providers

8. The Principal Regulations are amended by the substitution of the following for Regulation 7

“

Importer & Fulfilment service provider

7(1) Where the manufacturer is not established within the Community and in the absence of an authorised representative, the importer or a fulfilment service provider, as the case may be, shall

(a) ensure that the product placed on the market and/or put into service complies with Regulation 4; and

(b) keep and make available the EC declaration of conformity and the technical documentation.

(2) A person who contravenes this Regulation commits an offence.”

9. The Principal Regulations are amended by the substitution of the following for Regulation 11

“Warning Measure

10. The Principal Regulations are amended by the substitution of the following for Regulation 12

“

Compliance Direction

11. The Principal Regulations are amended by the substitution of the following for Regulation 13

“Withdrawal from market

12. The Principal Regulations are amended by the substitution of the following for Regulation 14

“

Effect of direction

13. The Principal Regulations are amended by the substitution of the following for Regulation 15

“

Appeal from direction

14. The Principal Regulations are amended by the substitution of the following for Regulation 16

“

Application to appropriate court for failure to comply with direction

15. The Principal Regulations are amended by the substitution of the following for Regulation 17

“Service of direction

16. The Principal Regulations are amended by the substitution of the following for Regulation 18

Appointment of authorised officers

18(1) SEAI may appoint such and so many persons to be authorised officers for the purposes of all or any of these Regulations or any of the EU Measures and such appointment may be specified for a fixed period.

(2) An authorised officer appointed under these Regulations shall be furnished with a warrant of appointment and shall when exercising any power conferred on him or her by this Regulation, if requested by a person affected, produce that warrant of appointment or a copy of it to that person.

(3) An appointment under this Regulation as an authorised officer shall cease -

(a) if SEAI revokes the appointment, or

(b) if the appointment is for a fixed period on the expiry of that period.

(4) A person appointed by the Minister as an authorised officer under these Regulations shall continue as an authorised officer as if appointed by SEAI under these Regulations.

17. The Principal Regulations are amended by the substitution of the following for Regulation 19

“Powers of authorised officers

18. The Principal Regulations are amended by the substitution of the following for Regulation 20

“

Penalties

20 (1) A person guilty of an offence under these Regulations (other than an offence under Regulation 19(9)) is liable-

(a) on summary conviction, to a class A fine, or

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding €250,000;

(2) A person guilty of an offence under Regulation 19(9) is liable on summary conviction to a Class A fine.”

19. The Principal Regulations are amended by the substitution of the following for Regulation 22

“

Prosecution of Offences

22.(1) Summary proceedings for an offence under these Regulations may be brought and prosecuted summarily by SEAI.

(2) Where summary proceedings for an offence under these Regulations have been instituted by the Minister and these proceedings have not concluded then said proceedings may be prosecuted summarily by SEAI.

(3) If a person is convicted of an offence under these Regulations the court shall, unless it is satisfied that there are special and substantial reasons for not so doing, order the person to pay to the prosecutor the costs and expenses measured by the court, reasonably incurred by the prosecutor in relation to the investigation, detection and prosecution of the offence, including costs incurred in the taking of samples, the carrying out of tests, examinations and analyses and in respect of the remuneration and other expenses of employees, consultants and advisers.”

GIVEN under my Official Seal,

15 December, 2022.

LEO VARADKAR,

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment..

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(

This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation

)

These regulations are for the purpose of transferring the Market Surveillance Authority for the ecodesign requirements for certain energy-related products, from the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.

These regulations also give full effect in Irish law to Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on market surveillance and compliance of products and give further effect in Irish law, as necessary to Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of the 21

st

October 2009 establishing a framework for the setting of eco-design requirements for energy-related products by amending the European Union (Eco-Design Requirements for certain energy-related products (amendment) Regulations 2013

S.I. No. 454 of 2013

).

Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 confers on national market surveillance authorities strengthened powers to carry out effective market surveillance to ensure that relevant products are compliant with certain EU harmonisation legislation, including Directive 2009/125/EC, with a view to ensuring the free movement of compliant products within the EU.

1 OJ No. L285, 31.10.2009, p.10

2 OJ No. L 169, 25.6.2019, p1

3 OJ No. L 015, 21/01/1998 P. 0014 - 0025

4 OJ No. L 112, 2.5.2018, p. 19-28

5 OJ No. L241, 17.9.2015, p. 1-15

6 OJ No. L 169, 25.6.2019, p1

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of

20

th December,

2022.

I, Leo Varadkar, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by

section 3

of the

European Communities Act 1972

(No. 27 of 1972) (as amended by

section 2

of the

European Communities Act 2007

(No.18 of 2007)), and for the purpose of giving further effect to Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009

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, and to give effect to Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019

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, hereby make the following regulations