DuPont Wins Counterfeit Case

January 21, 2013

WILMINGTON, Del. — DuPont Refrigerants recently finished a two-year effort to investigate counterfeit activity of DuPont refrigerant brands in Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China.

In 2009, a distributor alerted DuPont to potential counterfeiting of DuPont Suva and DuPont Freon brands. The information they provided led Dupont to suspect counterfeiting activity of Quzhouzhou Fuming Co. Ltd., in Quzhou City. With assistance from a local law firm, DuPont requested that local authorities conduct a raid of the suspected counterfeit facility. A raid action in late September 2011 resulted in the seizure of 1,500 empty refrigerant cylinders with DuPont Suva and Freon packaging, 1,000 counterfeit labels, and 1,000 counterfeit DuPont Freon R-22 cylinders.

After the raid, DuPont issued cease-and-desist letters, however, the company did not respond to the request and continued to sell the counterfeit refrigerants. In response, DuPont filed legal action against those responsible.
A court case was undertaken in China and a judicial settlement was reached in August 2012. The defendant was required to pay the equivalent of $39,400 to the Chinese government and $32,000 in damages and court costs to DuPont. The company is under a permanent injunction to not sell DuPont refrigerants or engage in counterfeit activities involving DuPont trademarks going forward. As part of the sentence, the judge also required the company to post a formal public apology in two Chinese newspapers.

“We will continue to combat counterfeiting of DuPont refrigerants, using assistance from local law enforcement, government officials, and customs organizations,” said Greg Rubin, DuPont global business manager. “This effort is ongoing and this case was an excellent example of cross-regional work between DuPont and our distributors. This is a collaborative effort. We can’t combat counterfeiting alone.”

Publication date: 1/21/2013 AHRI THE NEWS

EPA Issues Temporary R-22 Waiver

This afternoon the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a No Action Assurance Letter to the manufacturers and importers of R-22, which now allows for the production and importation of the refrigerant. Because the regulation responsible for governing the allocation of R-22 has not been finalized, manufacturers and importers were unable to make or bring new product into the United States (effective January 1, 2013), until this letter was received or the rule was finalized. This No Action Assurance Letter is valid until December 31, 2013 or until the R-22 Allocation rule is finalized by the EPA, whichever comes first.

It had been anticipated that the No Action Assurance Letter would limit importation and production of R-22 to approximately 45 million pounds in 2013, as proposed in the Allocation rule, however the letter issued today allows for roughly 39 million pounds to be produced or imported. This difference of approximately 6 million pounds would allow for potential recoupment of lost allocation rights by Arkema and Solvay, who were found to have been improperly denied allocation rights in a previous period.

What Distributors Need to Know Today: Your suppliers can once again produce and import R-22, albeit at levels slightly lower than had been anticipated. An additional 6 million pounds of R-22 is likely to be allowed upon completion of the Allocation rule (approximately April 1, 2013), although it is not yet clear how those rights would be divided amongst companies. HARDI will continue to update members as developments occur.

Illegal R22 importer gets six months

Source: ACR-news.com - http://www.ACR-news.com/

USA: The Florida man who pled guilty to knowingly importing approximately 15,640kg of illegal R22 into America has been sentenced to six months in prison, and six months under electronically monitored home-confinement, followed by 18 months of supervised release. The Miami Court also imposed a criminal fine of $3,000.

Norberto Guada pled guilty in October to a single count of a multiple-count indictment which had been brought against him and co-defendant Jorge G Murillo.

Guada was hired as a salesman in February 2007 by a company known as Lateral Investments LLC (Lateral). Lateral was a Florida corporation, engaged in, among other things, importing merchandise, including refrigerant gas. Between June and August 2007, Lateral illegally smuggled large quantities of R22 into the United States to sell on the black market. At no time did Lateral or its principals hold unexpended consumption allowances that would have allowed them to legally import the R22.

During 2007, Lateral illegally imported approximately 278,256kg or 20,460 cylinders of restricted R22, with a market value of $1,438,270. Guada was tasked with selling the refrigerant to businesses in the South Florida area. As part of his agreement in this matter, Guada specifically admitted to his knowing involvement in the importation and sale, contrary to law, of 15,640kg of R22 on August 10, 2007.

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