Regulation 811/2013 Annex VIII (consolidated version of 7/3/2017) mentions the following as regards the use of tolerances by Market Surveillance authorities:
“The verification tolerances set out in this Annex [Annex VIII - Product compliance verification by market surveillance authorities] relate only to the verification of the measured parameters by Member State authorities and shall not be used by the supplier as an allowed tolerance to establish the values in the technical documentation.”
It is thus explained in paragraph 2 of this same annex that:
| “(a) | the values given in the technical documentation pursuant to Article 5(b) of Directive 2010/30/EU (declared values), and, where applicable, the values used to calculate these values, are not more favourable for the supplier than the corresponding values given in the test reports pursuant to point (iii) of the abovementioned Article; and |
| (b) | the values published on the label and in the product fiche are not more favourable for the supplier than the declared values, and the indicated energy efficiency class is not more favourable for the supplier than the class determined by the declared values;” |
Hence manufacturers declared and published values should not be more favourable than the test results led in accredited laboratories to establish values for this regulation. Tolerances are reserved for Market Surveillance, as mentioned still in paragraph 2:
| “(c) | when the Member State authorities test the unit of the model, the determined values (the values of the relevant parameters as measured in testing and the values calculated from these measurements) comply with the respective verification tolerances as given in Table 16.” |
For instance, tolerances should not be used by manufacturers to declare a higher value for the seasonal coefficient of performance than the ones obtained in tests performed in an accredited laboratory.
Disclaimer: Please note that the European Commission cannot provide a legally binding interpretation of the EU legislation, as this is the sole competence of the European Court of Justice. Any remarks from the European Commission services are without prejudice to the position the Commission might take should related cases arise in a procedure before the Court of Justice.