German companies against new regulations on illegal refrigerants
According to interested parties, it would not make sense to introduce new legislation when the existing rules are not yet de facto applied.
The Federal Ministry of the environment (specifically the BMU, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety) has proposed an additional amendment to Germany's Chemical Act, which would add a number of additional requirements to track Commercial refrigerants, and make it mandatory to document and report every single transaction.
Strong criticism of the proposal came from several associations, in particular, BIV (Federal Association of German Refrigeration Plant Builders), VDKF (Association of German Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Specialists) and ZVKKW (Central Association of Cold and Air Conditioning Heat Pumps): in addition to judging the proposal difficult to achieve on a practical level, would entail a huge bureaucratic burden additional to the companies involved, however, in a period in which the authorities are already grappling with the application of current Regulations F-Gas: the fear is that there will be a heavy impact on German competitiveness in the market, further reducing the use of fluorinated gases at national level.
The bureaucratic impact would also be much heavier for small businesses, which are already burdened by numerous administrative practices: the draft laws analyzed, however, leave several doubts about the way in which statements should be presented, with the consequent risk of errors and penalties.
Another point raised by the group is also the poor application of the current regulations: if the authorities fail to implement the current regulations, leaving free field to a large submerged market (especially on the web), introducing new regulations limiting companies may not be the right way to go.
Source of information: industriaeformazione.it