EUROPE: A clampdown on the supply of refrigerant in illegal disposable cylinders has created a new illicit market in refrigerant being sold in refillable cylinders

Huge increases in the cost of refrigerants last year, as a result of the European F-gas phase down, created a vast black market in the higher GWP gases. Much of this was sold quite openly on the internet in disposable, non-refillable cylinders, a container which had been banned in Europe since 2007.