An EU-funded research group says Samsung is gaming European TV energy efficiency testsa claim the manufacturer strongly denies.

ComplianTV told The Guardian that it recorded consistently higher energy consumption rates in real-world situations than in official test conditions.

Samsung TVs have a feature known as "motion lighting," which reduces screen brightness when the picture on the screen is in motion. According to ComplianTV, the Samsung TVs reduced their brightness, and therefore power consumption, during international electrotechnical commission (IEC) testing, but not in real-world situations.

ComplianTV's research has not yet been published, so all the details are not known. But The Guardian said the European Commission has fielded similar complaints about TV testing from other EU states. The Swedish Energy Agency, for example, said it has seen TVs that recognize the standard footage that it uses for its TV testing and adjust accordingly. "These displays immediately lower their energy use by adjusting the brightness of the display when the standard film is being run," the agency said in a letter seen by The Guardian. It did not, however, specify which manufacturers made these TVs.

In a blog post, Samsung denied any wrongdoing.

"Motion lighting is not a setting that only activates during compliance testing," Samsung said. "On the contrary, it is a default setting which works both in the lab and at home; delivering energy savings and helping us to reduce our environmental impact."

Introduced in 2011 across all Samsung sets, motiong lighting is just one in a range of features developed to reduce the environmental impact of TV technology. It is not, the company reiterated, a "test cheat" or something that activates only during compliance testing.

If the customer alters their display settings, or switches to a different mode, the feature automatically turns off, so users can decide whether to prioritize power efficiency or performance in their TV.

"We are immensely proud of these technologies and look forward to innovating further in this area," the company said.

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Still, the European Commission told The Guardian that it will investigate the allegations and tighten regulations in an effort to prevent the use of "defeat devices" in consumer products.

This is not the first time Samsung TVs have prompted controversy. In February, Samsung's smart TV privacy policy warned users that spoken words containing personal or other sensitive information "will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party." The company later clarified the voice-recognition capabilities of its smart TVs and said its sets do not monitor living room conversations.

The news comes as Volkswagen is embroiled in an emissions-cheating scandal whereby software in its diesel cars produced much more environmentally friendly results during test situations than in real-world settings.

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