We suck? No, James Dyson. It is you who suck – Bosch and Siemens

Bosch and Siemens are taking legal steps "in Great Britain" against Dyson over what it terms the "false allegations" made by the British manufacturer that the German companies had cheated in vacuum-cleaner energy efficiency tests in "behaviour ... akin to that seen in the Volkswagen scandal".

BSH Hausgeräte, the German parent company of Bosch and Siemens, said it has taken "legal steps" in response to allegations made by James Dyson, founder and chief Scientist at the eponymous vaccuum-cleaner makers.

BSH CEO, Karsten Ottenberg, stated: "We have long since been aware that James Dyson has a history of taking a very aggressive approach against his competitors and has a desire to be in the public eye.

"With his completely unfounded accusations of cheating in the past week he has now overstepped the mark, which is why we will now initiate legal steps against Dyson," Ottenberg stated.

A BSH spokesperson told The Register they were unable to clarify what specific legal steps the company had taken.

Last week, Dyson alleged that the Siemens Q8.0 and Bosch GL80/In'Genius ProPerform vacuum cleaners operated at a lower power level in lab tests, which meant their actual power consumption in genuine domestic situations was dramatically higher.

Dyson complained that this has led to its two rivals' machines unfairly gaining AAAA energy efficiency stickers from European regulators, and BSH in turn complains that these allegations accuse them of misbehaving "in much the same way as the allegations of cheating at VW."

BSH strenuously rejects these allegations which are unfounded and untrue. All BSH vacuum cleaners are tested in accordance with the requirements of the corresponding EU Energy Label and Ecodesign Directives and meet these in full.

The BSH release claimed that it "was recently able to prove in autumn 2014 that Dyson had advertised incorrect values on the energy label for his appliances. These false declarations were prohibited by the courts in Germany and the values were changed by Dyson throughout Europe." ®