GEMS / MEPS
GEMS registration and MEPS compliance
For regulated product classes, GEMS registration is a precondition of supply — not a label you add later. We establish whether your product is caught, whether your evidence fits the determination, and get it registered.
Registration comes before supply
Under the Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards Act 2012, a product in a regulated class cannot lawfully be offered for supply or sale in Australia unless it is registered with the GEMS Regulator. This is not a labelling formality that can be resolved after stock lands — it is a precondition, and offering for sale includes advertising and online listings.
Regulated classes include air conditioners, refrigerators and freezers, televisions, computer monitors, external power supplies, various lighting products, electric motors, distribution transformers and water heaters, among others. Each class has its own GEMS determination setting the performance levels, the test method, the model identification rules and any energy rating label requirement.
What we do
- Establish whether your product is regulated, and under which determination — the answer often turns on capacity, configuration or intended use rather than on what the product is called.
- Review the determination's requirements against your product, including the minimum performance levels and any high-efficiency thresholds.
- Assess your test evidence — whether it was produced under the test method the determination names, and by a laboratory that meets its requirements.
- Scope and coordinate testing where the evidence does not exist or does not fit.
- Prepare and lodge the registration in the Energy Rating Registration System, with the model and family structure set up correctly.
- Review energy rating label artwork where the class requires one.
- Track expiry and determination changes so registrations do not lapse and superseded determinations do not catch you out.
Where this sits alongside everything else
GEMS is one of three obligations that commonly apply to the same appliance at the same time, and they are independent of one another: electrical safety and the EESS; the RCM and the ACMA's EMC arrangements; and GEMS for energy. Satisfying one says nothing about the others. Where a product also targets state incentive schemes, GEMS registration is usually the foundation those schemes build on.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Is GEMS registration the same as the RCM?
No, and they are frequently confused. The RCM covers electrical safety and electromagnetic compatibility. GEMS covers energy efficiency, under separate legislation with a separate regulator and a separate register. A product can carry a valid RCM and still be unlawful to supply because it is not GEMS registered.
What does MEPS actually mean?
Minimum Energy Performance Standards — the minimum efficiency level a regulated product must meet, set out in the GEMS determination for its class. Determinations also carry the testing method, the model identification rules, and any energy rating label requirements. Meeting MEPS and being registered are two separate obligations; you need both.
Is registration optional if we only sell a few units?
No. For a regulated product class, registration is a precondition of offering the product for supply or sale in Australia. There is no low-volume exemption, and offering for sale includes advertising and listing it online.
Does GEMS registration make us eligible for state incentive schemes?
It is usually necessary but not sufficient. Victorian Energy Upgrades and the NSW Energy Savings Scheme have their own product recognition routes, and several of them lean on the Energy Rating Registration Database — so a lapsed GEMS registration can end both your right to supply and your scheme eligibility at once. Since April 2024 the GEMS Regulator has actively monitored products offered under state incentive programs.
Want to learn more?
Speak to a Chartered Professional Engineer about your product, your target market and the approval pathway that actually applies to it.
Talk to an engineer
Not sure whether your product is regulated?
Capacity, configuration and intended use decide it more often than the product name does. Fifteen minutes will usually settle whether GEMS applies.