EFCTC looks to up the ante on illegal refrigerant imports
The European FluoroCarbons Technical Committee (EFCTC), which represents refrigerant suppliers, has called for the EU to include a Europe-wide penalty regime in its proposals for policing F-Gas imports.
EFCTC Chair Nick Campbell praised several proposals to reform the regulations in the EU’s review of the regulations as a welcome step to combat black market trade. But he warned that a failure to include penalties for the illegal sale of HFCs in the proposals were a serious shortcoming.
Mr Campbell said that there was hope for some form of minimum penalty regulations to be introduced, if not through F-Gas regulation itself, then through other legislation.
He cited the Environmental Crime Directive as an example of incoming legislation that did include a focus on the illegal trade of HFC refrigerants.
Mr Campbell conceded that the inclusion of HFCs in the proposals for the crime directive might explain their omission in the F-Gas regulations.
Mr Campbell said, “I think this is probably because of the Environmental Crime Directive and also, everything to do with penalties is currently based around individual countries.”
The F-Gas proposals, which include plans to introduce stricter quotas for HFC use, are currently being debated by European authorities and the HVACR sector.
Mr Campbell said he was encouraged by other changes envisaged in the proposals, including the recent news that the Czech Republic will be the first country to use the EU Single Window Environment for Customs to help automatically verify the status of F-gas imports.
Other member states are now expected to follow suit. The system is expected to have an important role in overhauling the monitoring of refrigerants under the F-Gas regulations.
Mr Campbell said that the current state of monitoring made it difficult to put a precise figure on the whole global market for illegal HFCs. This monitoring varied from country to country. He said, “Some of the EU member states have really put a lot of effort in. Spain is a great example, where they have had several seizures.”
Mr Campbell said, “We’ve still got a lot more countries to catch up though. But at least the process has started.”
Specialist entry ports
The EFCTC has also been pushing for a formal requirement on entry ports for a long time, so Mr Campbell said he was keen to see how the proposals handled this, “Let’s have HFCs coming through ports that have got the right facilities and are set up to look at them and check them.”
The collaboration of 16 countries under the European Multidisciplinary Platform against Criminal Threats (EMPACT) to seize cylinders of illegal refrigerant with an estimated value of €10m was cited by Mr Campbell as an example of success that had been achieved so far in tackling the European black market.
He said, “Even this year, we have seen a couple of seizures and I think we’re expecting several more from what we’ve heard on the grapevine. It is tens of tonnes – the odd lorry with a few pallets sitting on it for instance – but what is interesting is that this amount is no lower than it was in the past, so the trade is continuing to operate.”
The EFTC created a European Action Line service in 2019 to allow individuals to report concerns about black market refrigerant trade. This is then followed up by corporate investigations firm Kroll. The reports could range from rumours to whistleblowing about black market activity, he said, and covered a number of countries.
He said 74 separate evidence packs were produced by Kroll during 2020 about illegal refrigerant trade, while in 2021, 63 evidence packs were produced and passed onto relevant authorities in Europe. Mr Campbell said that national authorities were the responsible for acting on any evidence produced: “It is then up to the legislative staff in the customs teams and the police to follow that through…My guess is that it is several thousand tonnes covered by those evidence packs. But that is a rough estimate.”
As of June 2022, the EFCTC said that 388 reports had been received via the action line since its launch. Kroll has also stepped up investigating suspected illegal activity taking place online. Internet-based sales of refrigerant continue to be an issue when trying to enforce F-Gas regulations.
Mr Campbell said there had action to remove over 1,500 examples of “wrongdoings” concerning the supply of refrigerants online. He said, “This is a great effort. In fact, Kroll have told us that the removal rate is 85 per cent greater this year than it was in 2020.”
A growing number of EU member states have started to take their own action too, he said.