Dyson accuses competitors of acting like Volkswagen

THE vacuum cleaner company Dyson is taking rivals Bosch and Siemens to court around the EU after accusing them of misleading consumers about the power rating of their cleaners.

Sir James Dyson, founder of the company said, “Consumers purchasing these machines on the basis of their widely advertised stated AAAA rating are being misled.” He continued, “Dyson has issued proceedings against Siemens in Germany and Belgium and Bosch in the Netherlands and France. Their behaviour is akin to that seen in the Volkswagen scandal.”

The company claims that independent testing had shown that the Siemens Q8.0 and Bosch GL80/In’Genius ProPerform models contained a sensor which increased power when dust was detected – more than doubling their power output.

It argued the testing demanded under European rules, designed to root out and outlaw electricity-hungry vacuums, failed to pick up on the device as no dust is present when models undergo their official checks.

A joint statement on behalf of the brands involved strongly denied that consumers were being misled.