Press release from LG states that:
LG Electronics USA today filed a complaint against the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
LG is asking the court to stop the DOE from unilateral measures against the company – inappropriately forcing LG to remove Energy Star labels from certain of its refrigerator-freezer models by Jan. 2, 2010. The LG complaint states that DOE should pursue an industrywide approach to new testing standards within the process established in law.
LG and the DOE reached agreement on matters relating to energy testing for French Door refrigerators in November 2008. The DOE does not dispute that LG fulfilled all its obligations under that agreement.
However, the DOE now wants to change the testing standard announced in the binding November 2008 agreement and to require LG to follow a new test procedure that has not been clarified to LG or properly announced to the industry.
LG shares the DOE’s objective of improving the rules to provide accurate energy information to consumers, but LG objects to the process which the DOE is following.
Any changes to the 2008 agreement affect the entire industry. Fair notice should have been provided to the entire industry and the notice should have been prospective, with no retroactive effect and should have provided sufficient time for comment and compliance with the new rule. This is what the law requires.
LG had been willing to work with the DOE to find a path that would meet shared goals of providing guidance to the industry and a public announcement of the procedure with sufficient information and a reasonable time to implement that protocol.
LG regrets that it has no option other than to use legal means to defend itself and its customers.
Which is quite amusing given that many manufacturers have been accused, both in the UK and the US thus far, of having energy labels on their appliances which are incorrect.
This was highlighted recently in a story that which highlights that these labels are being monitored by DEFRA and, in the USA, by the DOE. What does seem to be being made clear is that consumers are perhaps being misled by many of the claims being made about energy performance on some appliances and that the various government bodies are not having any of it.
This is why a number of people within the industry and government maintain that any form of a “scrappage” or “cash for clunkers” scheme to encourage people to scrap perfectly working appliances for new “supposed” energy efficient ones is nothing short of a farce.