Electrolux fined £56,700 for F-gas breaches

UK: Leading Swedish domestic appliance manufacturer Electrolux has been fined a total of £56,700 by the UK’s Environment Agency for breaches of the European F-gas regulations. 

UK subsidiary Electrolux Plc has been fined £52,500 for selling fluorinated greenhouse gases to undertakings that did not hold the relevant F-gas certificates and for failing to keep records of F-gas sales. In addition, parent company Electrolux Appliances AB was fined £4,200 for placing on the market F-gases in illegal non-refillable cylinders. 

In January 2023, the Cooling Post revealed that Electrolux was offering R134a refrigerant via its UK spares website. Without any F-gas certification, the Cooling Post managed to purchase a cylinder of the R134a gas in a 900g cylinder, which was described as “rechargeable” despite no deposit being charged on the cylinder, and without any apparent systems in place to ensure the cylinder was returned for refilling, as required by the F-gas regulations.

It was found that R134a was also being offered on a number of Electrolux’s European websites, including those serving Spain, Portugal and Poland. The gas was also being offered on the website of Electrolux’s subsidiary company Zanussi in the UK. Our own investigations also indicated that the gas had been available from some of these sites for more than 12 months. 

The gas supplied was the Nevada brand owned by Italian company Mariel Srl. In an unconnected case, the Environment Agency report reveals that Mariel also received a £3,000 fine last year for failing to obtain sufficient HFC quota before placing HFCs on the British market.

According to the latest figures, the Environment Agency issued over £2.23m in civil penalties for a total of 64 breaches of the fluorinated greenhouse gases regulations over the last 12 months. 

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Major fridge firm found openly selling F-gas – 11 January 2023
UK: One of the leading domestic refrigeration manufacturers has been found to be openly selling R134a refrigerant in contravention of the F-gas regulations. Read more…