WIRED 24

AirCon Station

1234YF – News from Germany

H FO1234YF: The Commission refers GERMANY to the Court of Justice of the EU over failure to apply Directive on mobile air conditioning December 2015: Commission refers GERMANY to EU Court of Justice over the use of a banned greenhouse gas as car refrigerant. The European Commission has decided to refer Germany to the Court of Justice of the EU over the failure to apply Directive 2006/40/ EC (Mobile Air Conditioning (MAC) Directive) on mobile air-conditioning systems which prescribes the use of motor vehicles' refrigerants with less global warming potential and the phasing out of certain fluorinated greenhouse gases. National type-approval

authorities have the obligation to certify that a vehicle meets all EU safety, environmental and production requirements – including those on mobile air- conditioning systems – before authorising it to be placed on the EU market. This is regulated by Directive 2007/46/EC, which sets out the general framework for car type-approvals and foresees a range of remedial actions including the possibility to impose penalties. The Commission alleges that Germany has infringed EU law by allowing the car manufacturer Daimler AG to place automobile vehicles on the EU market that were not in conformity with the MAC Directive, and failing to take remedial action.