Action brought on 26 February 2020 – Applia v Commission

(Case T-140/20)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicant: Applia - Home Appliance Europe (Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Belgium) (represented by: Y. Desmedt, L. Salernitano and K. Olsthoorn, lawyers)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:

annul the following parts of the contested act: (i) Article 1(42) of Annex I providing for the definition of “declared value”; (ii) paragraph 2(2)(a) of Annex IX in the part where it states that “declared values” correspond to those “values given in the technical documentation”; and (iii) paragraph 2(2)(b) of Annex IX;

annul Table 9 on “Verification tolerances” of Annex IX in the part where it contains parameters that are included in Annex VI and are not listed in Annex V, namely: “Total mains efficacy ηTM”, “Lumen maintenance factor (for FL and HID)”, “Survival factor (for FL and HID)” and “Excitation purity”;

order the Commission to bear the costs of these proceedings.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In its application, the applicant seeks the annulment of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/2015¹ .

In support of the action, the applicant relies on two pleas in law.

First plea in law, alleging the contested act violates Articles 3, 12 and 16 of the Framework Regulation² and the Commission acted ultra vires by introducing inconsistent requirements as regards the technical documentation suppliers have to upload in the database and the verification procedure market surveillance authorities are entitled to carry out.

Second plea in law, alleging the contested act infringes the principle of legal certainty and of equality of treatment because it fails to establish a clear and univocal regulatory framework putting the suppliers in the impossibility to determine their duties, as regards the data to be provided in the technical documentation; and the applicable verification procedure to assess the accuracy of the data.

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¹ Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/2015 of 11 March 2019 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to energy labelling of light sources and repealing Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 874/2012 (OJ 2019 L 315, p. 68).

² Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2017 setting a framework for energy labelling and repealing Directive 2010/30/EU (OJ 2017 L 198, p. 1).