The Committee of Advertising Practice (“CAP”) and Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (“BCAP”) have confirmed that the energy labelling rules have been removed from their respective codes.

The decision follows a consultation published earlier this year (which we commented upon here) that considered the effect of the existing rules 11.8 and 11.9 of the CAP Code and rules 9.9 and 9.10 of the BCAP Code. These imposed requirements to include energy labelling and so-called ‘product fiche information’ for specific products and in specific types of advertising.

As the consultation explained, these requirements were introduced in 2011 under the Energy Information Regulations 2011 which transposed Directive (EC) No 2010/30/EU into UK law. However, in 2017 that Directive was repealed and replaced with Regulation EU 2017/1369, which amended energy labelling requirements and rescaled the energy efficient ratings for some of the products covered by the legislation. As a result of these changes, the existing CAP and BCAP rules and guidance no longer reflect the current legislative framework.

The consultation proposed removing the rules and guidance altogether rather than updating them, noting in particular that the Advertising Standards Authority had received no complaints under these provisions during their lifetime, and that there was no indication of any problems with compliance.

The consultation received no objections to this proposal, and CAP and BCAP have therefore pressed ahead with removing the rules and associated guidance. As anticipated in the consultation, responsibility for enforcing any relevant legislative energy-labelling requirements will now fall to the Office for Product Safety and Standards.

To read the Statement in full, click here.