New EU rules: ban on the sale of OLED televisions is imminent

From March 2023, significantly stricter rules on the electricity consumption of televisions will come into effect in the EU. OLED TVs and 8K televisions in particular could be threatened with extinction if their power consumption is too high according to the EU concept. However, the manufacturers still have a loophole.

EU rules: OLED and 8K TVs before the end

From March 1, 2023, the new Ecodesign Directive will take effect in the EU. TVs that cannot meet an upper limit on power consumption, may no longer be sold after this date. It could be tight, especially with larger smart TVs that offer a high resolution. According to the directive, almost all televisions with a screen diagonal of 49 inches and more are assigned the worst energy efficiency class G.

The new rules apply regardless of the display technology used. Since OLED televisions are usually more powerful because millions of individual OLED pixels light up by themselves, the sales ban could become a real problem here. That’s true even with televisions with a particularly high resolution, which, given their size, consume more power than Full HD or HD televisions. After all, the EU grants the manufacturers of TVs with self-illuminating, organic LEDs a small bonus as a correction factor (source: 4K movies).

The impending sales ban could also a signal effect beyond the EU to have. Very few manufacturers will afford to produce their models in an additional EU variant that consumes less electricity.

You can find out everything about the new energy efficiency label in the video:

OLED sales ban: SDR as a loophole

The upper limit for maximum consumption values ​​provided by the EU refers to the display of content in standard dynamic range (SDR), i.e. not to high dynamic range (HDR). In the future, television manufacturers could design their devices in such a way that the Power consumption in SDR mode is just below the upper limit. In addition, the “Automatic Brightness Control” can then be activated in the factory setting in order to further reduce the power consumption.