Lighting Association Ireland shines a light on key industry challenges

Building Services Engineering recently caught up with Gavin Edwards, Chair of Lighting Association Ireland (LAI), as the organisation heads into its AGM following an intensive programme of activities over the past nine months.

Lighting Association Ireland

On the home front, LAI has engaged extensively with the Market Surveillance Authority in SEAI on teasing out the challenges posed by the requirement to register products on EPREL, the European Product Registry for Energy Labelling.

European Product Registry for Energy Labelling

The EPREL is an EU database managed by the European Commission that provides information on the energy efficiency and environmental performance of products covered by the EU Energy Labelling Regulations. Suppliers are legally required to register their products in EPREL before placing them on the EU market.

These discussions led to a collaborative joint initiative between MSA and LAI to provide feedback and develop future guidance documents that will help both the regulators and individual companies better understand the registration process and ensure seamless uploading of products to EPREL. Progress has also been made regarding the Triple E Register, and it is hoped that a significant announcement will be made on this early in 2026.

LAI Training

Training is a key element of the LAI programme, and the most recent course, held on 07 October, featured ‘Lighting Legislation, Compliance Control and Production Testing’. Topics covered included all 12 current legislative and regulatory requirements that can affect manufacturers, importers and distributors of lighting products; open discussions on legislation and how best to apply the requirements; operating a quality system; production testing and controlling conformity; and hands-on use of production test equipment.

LightingEurope

LAI is also busy on the international front. It is a proactive member of LightingEurope (LE) and, in fact, has five delegates on various LE sub-committees and technical committees. These play a significant role in shaping and influencing EU legislation, not just with regard to lighting, but also in relation to energy and sustainability, covering all product types.

EU Waste Framework Directive

Among the most recent contributions have been to an EU proposal on evaluating the SCIP database. As part of the European Union (EU) Waste Framework Directive (WFD) (2008/98/ EC), the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has established a database for storing safe-use information on substances of very high concern (SVHCs) present in articles placed on the market within the EU. It is referred to as the Substances of Concern in articles, as such or in complex objects (Products) (SCIP) database.

LightingEurope has called on the European Commission to re-evaluate the effectiveness and proportionality of the SCIP database. Alternatively, less burdensome mechanisms for communicating information on SVHCs should be considered, or a radical simplification of reporting requirements should be pursued to ensure that the benefits genuinely outweigh the administrative and financial costs for manufacturers.

Lighting and the EU Taxonomy Act

The EU Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act, which came into force in January 2022, established the technical criteria for determining if an economic activity contributes substantially to climate change mitigation or adaptation, a key component of the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities. It provides a common, science-based definition of green investments to direct capital toward sustainable projects, prevent greenwashing, and help companies become more climate-friendly, aligning with the European Green Deal.

Unlocking the potential of smart lighting within the EU Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act is a topic of concern for LAI and LightingEurope. Quite simply, LAI, along with LightingEurope, believes that it would be beneficial for both the environment and the industry if manufacturing of controllable LED-based luminaires – for both indoor and outdoor applications, such as road lighting, pedestrian and cycle lane lighting, among others – were explicitly mentioned as an enabling activity for Taxonomy Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation.

Such inclusion would incentivise the market to accelerate the transition to smart lighting solutions, driving substantial energy savings.

Closing eCommerce loopholes

A key issue identified by Market Surveillance Authorities and others across Europe is that online marketplaces are not currently recognised as economic operators under EU law. This exempts them from proactive legal due diligence responsibility to verify the compliance of products sold through their platforms. They only need to act if they are informed of a potential non-compliance.

Neither the Digital Services Act (DSA), the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), nor the Green Deal framework have effectively addressed this gap in the legislation.

As a result, online marketplaces can facilitate the sale of noncompliant goods from non-EU sellers to EU consumers, with minimal accountability for the safety, legality or environmental impact of those products.

To preserve the integrity of the EU internal market and ensure the effectiveness of EU legislation, LAI believes it is essential that online marketplaces are assigned clearer and stronger obligations. By addressing this legal loophole, the EU can establish a more coherent, enforceable, and future-proof regulatory framework that ensures all product suppliers adhere to the same high standards of safety and sustainability.

In conclusion

LAI Chair Gavin Edwards comments, “As my two-year tenure comes to a close, I look back on an intensive programme of engagement with Ireland’s statutory bodies, regulatory authorities, industry professional bodies and of course the LAI membership. I now look forward in my capacity as ex officio to supporting incoming Chair Dave Murphy of Signify in realising his objectives.”