The European Commission has agreed to provide funding for physical compliance testing to confirm the validity of tire manufacturers’ performance labels. A sum of several million Euros has been assigned to this project with brand selection and testing to be carried out in the second half of this year.
The ITMA (Imported Tyres Manufacturers’ Association) has long argued for better and more consistent levels of compliance across the EU but has severe concerns over the manner in which brands are selected for testing. This should be genuinely random, but has not always been the case in the past. The ITMA is also concerned about traceability.
The ITMA notes that with so many tires of all brands entering the EU via the ‘parallel’ market, it is important that the agency appointed to conduct these tests takes steps to ascertain the provenance of the tires purchased for evaluation.
Tires imported into Europe via third parties will not have been intended for sale here so may well not meet Europe’s regulations or requirements. Manufacturers have relatively little control over this, so the ITMA will be lobbying to ensure this is understood by the Commission and properly accounted for in the selection, testing and outcome evaluation.
May 27, 2015
