The Lighting Industry Association (LIA) has launched a program in the UK as part of an EU wide initiative from LightingEurope to carry out market surveillance on luminaires.

A survey of European lighting companies in 2016 showed there was a real need to address the problem of compliance and exaggerated performance claims in the luminaire market. The survey also found that 94% of companies asked believed the activity of their national market surveillance authority was insufficient to tackle the problem. The largest number of responses came from the UK.

(Image: Lighting Industry Association)

In response to this survey LightingEurope has developed an industry funded market surveillance program which is being rolled out in the UK, France, Spain and Poland initially with others to follow.

LIA members are invited to join the scheme which costs from just 500Euros a year. Members will be entitled to display the Compliant Lighting Initiative logo advertising their support while having access to information on the products being tested.

All monies raised from UK companies will be spent checking products on the UK market at the LIA Laboratory.

Peter Hunt who was recently elected President of LightingEurope and is co-ordinating this scheme in the UK said “Without doubt the biggest concern expressed by our members is the plethora of non-compliant products carrying exaggerated claims appearing on the market. Compliance with the wide range of regulations our industry is subjected to comes at a cost. It is simply unfair that certain companies are avoiding the cost of compliance in order to gain a competitive advantage. This program aims to tackle this problem and help create a level playing field.”

LightingEurope has pledged 30,000 Euros to kick off this project and plans to publish its findings annually.