The Noise from Outdoor Equipment Directive simplified existing EU legislation and safeguarded the internal market by merging 7 specific product noise directives and 2 directives on test procedures. The Directive 2000/14/EC is part of the European Union's strategy to reduce noise at source, in this case noise emissions from equipment for use outdoors, and to provide relevant information to purchasers, users and citizens to encourage the choice of quieter equipment. The Directive covers 57 types of equipment, machinery broadly used, for example, on construction sites or in large gardening projects. It requires all of the equipment in its scope to be marked with its measured, i.e. guaranteed, sound power level but, for a sub-set of this scope, also requires that level to fall under a prescribed limit. Because it lays down its requirements in such precise detail for some products, and also because it regulates an area where the performance of the products in question is under a constant process of refinement and development, there is an inherent need for that detail to be updated periodically. From its present structure, 3 basic questions arise in the light of developments in the state of the art:

— where limits are already prescribed, are they still reasonable?

— where marking alone is required, is there a case now for prescribing a limit and, if so, what should that limit be?

— in the case of outdoor equipment not presently in the scope, is there a case for now including such equipment and, if so, with just marking or with a prescribed limit?

The objective of the study is to deliver robust answers to all of these questions that could form the basis of a proposal for a revision of the Directive.