Voluntary Agreement
The Voluntary Agreement (originally signed on 16 February 2011) establishes a set of targets to be met for all products sold on the EU market. Requirements for energy-efficiency and duplexing availability must be met by at least 90% of products sold.
The agreement aims to reduce the environmental footprint of imaging equipment – both by design and by helping customers make informed choices during purchase and usage of the equipment:
- Design requirements relate to energy consumption, default delay times, recto-verso printing, the ability to print several pages on one sheet of paper, recycling and cartridge reuse. Machines must be designed for easy recycling of plastic and other materials and must be able to accommodate non-OEM ink and toner cartridges.
- Information requirements cover resource and energy efficiency, paper usage and cartridge disposal. Business and retail customers must be provided with accurate, detailed and transparent information.
The requirements will contribute to reaching the objectives of the EU Action Plan on Energy Efficiency and curb EU energy consumption by 20% by 2020.
Subgroup on Targets
- Minutes 7th meeting - 1 April 2021
- Minutes 6th meeting - 19 March 2021
- Minutes 5th meeting - 5 March 2021
- Minutes 4th meeting - 19 February 2021
- Minutes 3rd meeting - 5 February 2021
- Progress report to the Consultation Forum - 29 January 2021
- Minutes 2nd meeting - 22 January 2021
- Minutes Kick-off meeting - 15 January 2021
2020-2021 Joint Voluntary Agreement
- EVAP-Remans response to NGO comments on draft VA (14 September 2021)
- Latest draft VA v. 5 (9 April 2021)
- Explanatory note (9 April 2021)
- Draft VA v. 5 (7 October 2020)
- Explanatory note (7 October 2020)
- Letter of Intent (11 September 2020)
- Progress report - 9 July 2020
- Timeline - June 2020
- Minutes 2nd Joint Meeting - 20 May 2020
- Minutes 1st Joint Meeting - 3 April 2020
2018-2019 VA revision
- Latest draft VA v. 4 (18 October 2019)
- Explanatory note v. 3 (13 September 2019)
- Rationale for proposed section 5.3 (10 July 2019)
- Latest draft VA v. 2 (25 March 2019)
- Explanatory note
- Feedback to stakeholder comments to VA version 1.1 (November 2018)
- Updated timeline (March 2019) - subject to change
- Stakeholder meeting presentation (25 April 2019)
Correspondence with the European Commission:
- Withdrawal of Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe GmbH from Imaging Equipment Voluntary Agreement (5 October 2021)
- Withdrawal of OKI Europe Limited from Imaging Equipment Voluntary Agreement (24 March 2021)
- Withdrawal of Samsung from Imaging Equipment Voluntary Agreement (20 October 2017)
- Withdrawal of Ricoh and Panasonic from Imaging Equipment Voluntary Agreement and updated market share (1 February 2017)
- European Commission letter on tier 3 targets from 1 January 2017
- Letter to European Commission on tier 3 targets (VA 5.2)
- Renewed endorsement of amended Voluntary Agreement by the European Commission from June 2015
Impact assessment and Report from the Commission to the Parliament on the imaging equipment Voluntary Agreement:
- Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the voluntary ecodesign scheme for imaging equipment (COM (2013) 23 of 29/01/2013)
- Impact Assessment [SWD(2013) 15, 29/01/2013]
- Executive Summary of the Impact Assessment [SWD(2013) 14, 29/01/2013]
Guidelines
- 2016 European Commission guidelines recommendation and Annex
- 2013 Draft Guidelines on the self-regulation measures concluded by industry under the Ecodesign Directive 2009/125/EC
Past version of the Voluntary Agreement