LEGISLATION Managing compliance with the ACEA engine
oil sequences Michael Boyer, Director of Services to Associations and Industry in the Lubricants Sector (SAIL)
The European Engine Lubricant Quality Management System, or EELQMS, was designed by ATIEL together with ACEA, the European association of vehicle manufacturers, and ATC (additives manufacturers) and sets out a framework to assure the quality of automotive engine lubricants and the performance claims made for them.
Within this framework, ATIEL’s role is to promote the compliance of lubricants through a Code of Practice by monitoring and managing claims made against the ACEA engine oil sequences.
Lubricant Marketers have full liability for the self- certifying claims they make on their lubricants against valid ACEA engine oil sequences. All claims must meet the relevant ACEA category claim in full, in order to be compliant. Partial claims are not permissible.
Part of the role of ATIEL involves delegating product compliance monitoring to SAIL, an independent company based in Belgium, who monitor claims made in the market against the ACEA Engine Oil sequences. ATIEL and SAIL would expect all claims to have the support of the Lubricant Marketer’s additive company, and for these claims to be supported with relevant performance test data demonstrating how the technology deployed meet the claims being made.
In this context, it is clear that statements by additive companies on their additive packs which could create confusion in the mind of the Lubricant Marketer are not acceptable, as they could lead to non-compliant or incorrect claims. This can be, for instance, the case when in its marketing material, an additive company sets out an indication of the performance levels relating to each of its packs in a framework which links ACEA claims directly to its additives, whilst adding in a footnote that API, OEM and ACEA licensing is not supported by these additive packs.
ATIEL believes such statements are contradictory and potentially confusing as they use the Lubricant Marketers’ liability as justification for the way claims have been set out. However, the Lubricant Marketer
would, in turn and in many cases, rely on the additive company’s product descriptions in assessing the claims they can make for their products.
All Lubricant Marketers remain wholly liable for the self-certifying claims made on their engine lubricants against the ACEA engine oil sequences. They need to ensure that any claims being made are backed up by relevant performance test data including a Candidate Data Package, which sets out the testing that their technology has been subject to, and the results achieved so demonstrating how the claims being made are fully compliant with the provisions set out in the ATIEL Code of Practice, the ACEA engine oil sequences and EELQMS, and that this data is readily accessible to them.
www.sail-europe.eu
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LUBE MAGAZINE NO.186 APRIL 2025
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