Danish anger at lack of action over F-gas breaches
15th March 2025
DENMARK: The Danish authorities have been criticised by the air conditioning and refrigeration industry for failing in its responsibilities to police the F-gas regulations.
The Danish trade association Dansk Køl & Varme has accused the Danish Chemicals Inspectorate, the body responsible for ensuring compliance with the regulations, of not living up to its obligations.
The association insists that it is common knowledge that there are companies and individuals who offer illegal refrigerant for sale or carry out work in breach of the regulations but says the chemical watchdog’s control of them is inadequate.
Backed by concern from its membership, Dansk Køl & Varme established a dialogue with the Danish Chemicals Inspectorate in 2017 and has repeatedly expressed concern about the little action on the continued violations.
“Along the way, we asked about the use of fines and received the answer that no one had been fined in the past three years,” the association says on its website. Meanwhile, the sale of refrigerants via social media also continued unabated.
The Danish Chemicals Inspectorate is reported to have cited a number of legal arguments for not doing anything further and hit back at the criticism, telling the political news website Altinget that its available enforcement options largely ensured satisfactory compliance.
In 2023, Dansk Køl & Varme requested access to case documents from the Danish Chemicals Inspectorate and appointed a lawyer to assess the authority’s case processing. Access to the files is said to have discovered a total of approximately 200 cases in the period from 2020 to 2022.
Cases of illegal imports aside, there were 74 cases in which the association accused the inspectorate of failing in its responsibilities as a supervisory authority.
None of the cases had resulted in fines or injunctions and in several cases, the association claims that the word of the person reported was taken at face value, and not a single physical inspection was carried out. In practice, it found that violations were only met with guidance and warnings – without follow-up.
“The case processing is so slow that some violations end on their own – without the violation having any consequences,” Dansk Køl & Varme claims.
