Companies fined for F-gas quota breaches
10th January 2024
UK: At least 40 companies registered in England have been fined a total of around £1.4m for breaches of the F-gas regulation quota system.
Data obtained by the Cooling Post indicates that penalties ranging from £1,000 to the maximum £200,000 have been levied by the Environment Agency on 41 companies since the European F-gas regulation passed into GB law post Brexit.
Details of 37 cases were provided by DEFRA, a further four, more recent cases, were uncovered by the Cooling Post.
In all but two cases, the breaches involved a lack of HFC quota or insufficient quota authorisations contrary to Article 14(1) of Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on fluorinated greenhouse gases.
While the number of companies seems high, DEFRA insists that with 440 organisations requiring quota authorisations overall compliance is over 90%. DEFRA described this level of compliance as “a strong reflection” of the guidance available to implement these regulations “during a time of significant change” in moving from the EU scheme to a newly established GB scheme.
Of the two penalties not related to quota authorisations, one was for the recently reported penalty of £37,5000 imposed on online appliance retailing group Buy It Direct for failing to obtain confirmation from end user buyers that equipment would be installed by F-gas certified personnel/companies. The other, a fine of £21,000, dates back to an incident in 2019 levied on Ballymore Construction Services for failing to recover fluorinated greenhouse gases from a split system air conditioning unit.
Related stories:
Online retailer fined £37.5k for F-gas breaches – 7 January 2024
UK: Buy It Direct (BID), owner of online appliance retailer Appliances Direct, will pay a penalty of £37,500 for selling air conditioning units in breach of the F-gas regulations. Read more…
