SWEDEN: Customs officers are continuing to identify what appears to be growing incidences of false stickers being used by criminals to disguise illegal exports of waste or secondhand CFC refrigeration equipment.
Following last week's news of cases of interceptions of shipments of illegal waste or secondhand fridges in Germany and the Netherlands, customs officers in Sweden have now reported finding a batch of suspected false R134a stickers.

In the German and Dutch cases, waste or secondhand refrigerators carried stickers suggesting that the compressors contained R600a (isobutane). On removing the stickers, customs officers found they actually contained the now banned CFC R12.

In this latest case Swedish customs found a batch of R134a refrigerator/compressor product stickers when checking a person that was earlier fined for smuggling waste CFC equipment. While the stickers showed different company names, all had the same model and production numbers. The person carrying the stickers person did not work for any of the companies involved.
 
European regulations prohibit the export outide the EU of products and equipment containing CFCs or whose continuing function relies on supply of CFCs. Similar regulations apply in many other countries.