Why we back EU alignment on ecodesign

The Telegraph last week carried a story claiming that plans to update standby power rules for smart devices to align with the EU will make everyday appliances “slower, more irritating and less convenient”. That claim doesn’t hold up and is actually something we’ve been pushing for a long time, and for several excellent reasons.

These products will be on British shelves whatever Brussels does

DESNZ is proposing to align Great Britain with the EU’s standby regulation, which came in last year and applies in Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework. Given (what should have been obvious) that manufacturers build for global markets, not for one country, smart TVs, speakers and appliances made for Europe are the same products that retailers stock in Britain. Many products already on UK shelves meet these requirements today and if they had made the products worse, consumers would already have noticed.

What the rules actually do

The proposals tighten limits on how much power devices consume when switched off, on standby or waiting for a wifi signal. They also require devices to power down when nobody is using them, usually after 20 minutes (something which we’ve all seen before when leaving our TVs unattended). The aim isn’t to annoy people, but to save them money and stop us wasting energy. You’d have thought this would be cheered on by the Telegraph given the price cap is about to rise abruptly, and all in DESNZ estimates the changes will save around 11.5 TWh of electricity by 2050. Without these rules that’s UK households paying for 11.5 TWh without getting anything back.

Divergence is the real cost

Apart from reducing energy demand and saving consumers real money, the biggest reason to align is to avoid higher prices and trade friction. If Britain set its own standards, manufacturers would face a choice. They could build separate UK versions of products, a massive extra cost that would be passed on to consumers, or they could decide the UK market isn’t worth the hassle. Either way, British shoppers lose out through higher prices, less choice and slower access to new products. For a market of Britain’s size, that’s a legit risk.

Alignment also cuts trade friction. One set of rules means one design, one set of test documents and one compliance process. That matters most for smaller firms, which can’t afford to maintain parallel product lines, and keeps prices down as #cossylives continues to bite.

Common sense, not ideology

This isn’t about Brussels or the depressingly increasingly politicised net zero transition. It’s about practical, product-level rules that industry has already adopted. Industry wants a market that is easy to sell into and keeps costs down. The Government has listened, and the consultation is open until 24 December.

We’d urge ministers to stay the course. Aligning on ecodesign keeps prices competitive, protects consumer choice and cuts waste. That’s why industry supports it.