Samsung reject claims that TV setting can detect energy tests

The tests that Samsung is dismissing are from an alliance of ten organisations in Europe who set out to see whether the energy consumption claims of TVs are accurate. Their lab tests are not being fully reported until this afternoon.

What has emerged already is that the researchers claim to have seen results which "give the impression" that some TVs detected a test situation... and could therefore adapt to lower energy consumption readings.

The echoes with Volkswagen are clear - it has admitted that a cheat device was fitted to 11 million vehicles which enabled them to appear to be producing lower emissions during tests.

But Samsung is furious at the idea that any of its TVs are cheating tests. It says that the researchers’ mistake is to misunderstand a so-called "motion lighting" feature which reduces screen brightness when the screen picture is moving. They say this is a standard "out-of-the-box feature" which operates during normal use in the customer’s home.

Away from Samsung - there is a wider story here. Across Europe energy saving groups are claiming that "mis-sold appliances cut expected household energy savings by an estimated 10% in Europe. Lost savings.. equate to about 10.6bn euros".

A new set of tests is about to start. It aims to check whether the energy efficiency test results given for appliances are a proper reflection of power usage when we get them home.

This is the first signal that the issue of product testing accuracy will extend far beyond vehicles - the VW scandal is leading to some searching questions - but so far very few answers