Commission Decision (EU) 2017/1218 of 23 June 2017 establishing the EU Ecolabel criteria for laundry detergents (notified under document C(2017) 4243) (Text with EEA relevance. )

The product group ‘laundry detergents’ shall comprise any laundry detergent or pretreatment stain remover falling under the scope of Regulation (EC) No 648/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council which is effective at 30 °C or below and is marketed and designed to be used for the washing of textiles principally in household machines, but not excluding its use in public laundrettes and common laundries. Pre-treatment stain removers include stain removers used for direct spot treatment of textiles before washing in the washing machine but do not include stain removers dosed in the washing machine and stain removers dedicated to other uses besides pre-treatment. This product group shall not comprise fabric softeners, products that are dosed by carriers such as sheets, cloths or other materials or washing auxiliaries used without subsequent washing such as stain removers for carpets and furniture upholstery.

1 For the purpose of this Decision, the following definitions shall apply: (1) ‘ingoing substances’ means substances intentionally added, by-products and impurities from raw materials in the final product formulation (including water-soluble foil, if used); (2) ‘heavy-duty detergents’ means detergents used for ordinary washing of white textiles at any temperature; (3) ‘colour-safe detergents’ means detergents used for ordinary washing of coloured textiles at any temperature; (4) ‘light-duty detergents’ means detergents intended for delicate fabrics; (5) ‘primary packaging’ means: (a) for single doses in a wrapper that is intended to be removed before use, the individual dose wrapping and the packaging conceived so as to constitute the smallest sales unit of distribution to the final user or consumer at the point of purchase, including label where applicable; (b) for all other types of products, packaging conceived so as to constitute the smallest sales unit of distribution to the final user or consumer at the point of purchase, including label where applicable; (6) ‘microplastic’ means particles with a size of below 5 mm of insoluble macromolecular plastic, obtained through one of the following processes: (a) a polymerisation process such as polyaddition or polycondensation or a similar process using monomers or other starting substances; (b) chemical modification of natural or synthetic macromolecules; (c) microbial fermentation; (7) ‘nanomaterial’ means a natural, incidental or manufactured material containing particles, in an unbound state or as an aggregate or as an agglomerate and where, for 50 % or more of the particles in the number size distribution, one or more external dimensions is in the size range 1-100 nm .

2 For the purposes of paragraph 1(2) and (3), a detergent shall be considered either a heavy-duty detergent or a colour-safe detergent except where the detergent packaging explicitly states that the product is intended for use on delicate fabrics (i.e. light-duty detergent).

In order to be awarded the EU Ecolabel under Regulation (EC) No 66/2010, a laundry detergent or pre-treatment stain remover shall fall within the product group ‘laundry detergents’, as defined in Article 1 of this Decision and shall comply with the criteria as well as the related assessment and verification requirements set out in the Annex.

The criteria for the product group ‘laundry detergents’ and the related assessment and verification requirements shall be valid for 6 years from the date of notification of this Decision.

For administrative purposes the code number assigned to the product group ‘laundry detergents’ shall be ‘006’.

Decision 2011/264/EU is repealed.

1 By derogation from Article 6, applications for the EU Ecolabel for products falling within the product group ‘laundry detergents’ submitted before the date of notification of this Decision shall be evaluated in accordance with the conditions laid down in Decision 2011/264/EU.

2 Applications for the EU Ecolabel for products falling within the product group ‘laundry detergents’ submitted within 2 months from the date of notification of this Decision may be based either on the criteria set out in Decision 2011/264/EU or on the criteria set out in this Decision. Those applications shall be evaluated in accordance with the criteria on which they are based.

3 EU Ecolabel licenses awarded in accordance with the criteria set out in Decision 2011/264/EU may be used for 12 months from the date of notification of this Decision.

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.