Following the Volkswagen scandal, regulators probe Samsung’s TV tests

Consumers shopping for appliances today look at power use rankings to see which models will give them the lowest energy costs. But now a European research group says Samsung televisions may not be as energy efficient as the company’s testing suggests.

In the wake of the Volkswagen test rigging scandal, the European group Complian TV says its research shows that Samsung televisions use more energy in real world use than shown in lab testing conducted to meet international standards. The research group, which is funded by the European Commission, says that outside the lab the company’s TV sets consistently use more energy than expected, according to Newsweek.

The Samsung televisions use a “motion lighting” feature intended to monitor energy use, and in lab testing the setting did cut power consumption. But Complian’s testing under real-world conditions found no such reductions in energy use, finding fuel bills and carbon emissions were higher than in the lab testing.

Samsung has denied that the setting is intended to rig the tests and strongly rebuked the comparison to the Volkswagen scandal. Complian’s report does not suggest any illegal behavior by the company, however the group did suggest that the power management settings may have been detecting test conditions.