Italians urged to report illegal trade
16th December 2018
ITALY: Leading Italian refrigerant supplier General Gas has described the illegal HFC trade in Italy as “very worrying” and urges customers to report such activities to the authorities.
In a flyer sent to over 9,000 stakeholders in the RAC and MAC sectors, the Milan-based company warns of a large amount of refrigerant being sold in illegal non-refillable cylinders.
“We are witnessing a massive presence on the national market of non-compliant containers and/or illegally imported product, that is not covered by regular F-Gas emission quotas on European territory, as required by European Regulation No. 517/2014,” the company says.
“The phenomenon is very worrying, as it generates serious risks both for the environment and for the safety of technicians and end users.”
General Gas, which sells refrigerants under the Kryon brand, reveals that, as in many other European countries, the illegal sales in Italy seem to be mainly centred around R134a for the car air conditioning sector, although R404A and R410A are not exempt from this criminal practice.
“Presumably these containers, being sold through parallel or unofficial channels, are also made available to personnel and companies that do not have regular F-gas certification,” General Gas says.
The illegal activity in Europe, as highlighted by the Cooling Post, is most evident by the use of non-refillable cylinders – a container that has been banned in Europe since 2007.
General Gas also speculates that the refrigerant has, most likely, been imported without the necessary European F-gas quota.
In a week that the European Commission praised the actions of a group of Italian contractors who threatened Amazon with court action if it did not refrain from selling illegal refrigerant, General Gas encourages customers to report any illegal activity to the Carabinieri Command Environmental Protection, the enforcing authority.
Information can be found on the company’s website here.
Related stories:
Amazon Italy removes refrigerant adverts – 18 November 2018
ITALY: A group of Italian refrigeration contractors have been successful in getting HFC refrigerants removed from the Amazon website that were being sold in contravention of the F-gas regulations. Read more…
Amazon in court over illegal F-gas sales – 26 September 2018
ITALY: A group of Italian refrigeration contractors is taking online retailer Amazon to court for continuing to sell HFC refrigerant without requiring buyers to be F-gas certified. Read more…
