New EU rules on labelling of tyres

Briefing 26-06-2020

On 17 May 2018, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a new regulation on the labelling of tyres for the purposes of fuel efficiency, safety, and noise reduction. This would replace the 2009 Tyre Labelling Regulation (TLR), while maintaining and reinforcing most of its key provisions. The new regulation seeks to increase consumer awareness of the tyre label, and improve market surveillance and enforcement of TLR provisions across the EU Member States. Suppliers would be obliged to display the tyre label in all forms of purchase, including where the tyre is not physically shown in the store and where it is sold online or on a long-distance basis. Whereas the tyre label is currently applicable to passenger and light-duty vehicles, in future it would also apply to heavy-duty vehicles. The new label would include visual information on tyre performance in snow or ice conditions, and could be adjusted by means of delegated acts to include information on mileage, abrasion or re-studded tyres. Tyre labels would be included in the new European Product Database for Energy Labelling before any sale on the EU market. On 13 November 2019, successful trilogue negotiations resulted in a provisional agreement on the content of the new regulation. The legal text was finalised and the new TLR was formally adopted by the Council and Parliament in 2020 and published in the Official Journal of the EU on 5 June 2020. Its provisions become applicable from 1 May 2021.