"A puzzling and unreasonable order by the Director General of the Ministry of Economy created a limited market structure, as a result of which the public pays an average air conditioner refill of NIS 1,500 instead of NIS 500, and this is only the beginning," claims a joint petition to the High Court by several leading air conditioning companies in Israel , against the Ministry of Economy and Industry and the Competition Authority, regarding the distribution of air conditioner gas import quotas used by all air conditioners in Israel.
The companies of the air conditioning cannon accessories air conditioners and air conditioners Ltd., the Beit Mizog Ltd. chain from the Rafi group, the Rafi and air conditioners Ltd. filed a petition last Thursday (2/16) to the High Court against the state demanding the cancellation of the order of the Director General of the Ministry of Economy 2.13 on the topic "Distribution of quotas for the import of materials that cause global warming".
According to them, the directive adopted an unequal and non-competitive distribution mechanism for import quotas, harming the pockets of the Israeli public as a whole.
The result of this directive, in its current form, is a disproportionate price increase for the Israeli importers, who are allowed to import the gas.
The result: tripling the price of air conditioner gas, as mentioned, to a price of about 1,500 shekels instead of only 500 shekels for an average home air conditioner.
Because of a government order - you will pay 3 times for filling air conditioners (Photo: ShutterStock)
The purpose of the CEO's order is to regulate the distribution of import quotas for HFCs type substances in light of the State of Israel's signing of the Montreal Protocol and the Kigali Amendment, and to reduce the import quotas in order to adapt to international requirements, in accordance with the provisions of the amendment to the regulations for the hazardous substances regulations (implementation of the Montreal Protocol regarding substances that harm the layer The ozone), 2004-2004.
According to the petition, which was submitted through the lawyers Gidi Faraf, Dafna Shalu-Kornblit, Adi Mordechai and Lehi Naziri from the Mitar law firm, the order establishes a new and different method for distributing import quotas for air conditioners 410R gas, the only gas that can be used today to fill existing and new air conditioners that are now entering market.
The order focused the bulk of the quotas on importers and significantly reduced the import quotas on consumers.
According to them, this method of distribution created, under the auspices of the government ministries, a blatant damage to the market and to competition in the air conditioning industry, which results in a deep damage to the customers' pockets, since in practice only a small number of importers received the most quotas, and these increased the prices of the gas sold by them and reap a large profit, on public account
Petition to the High Court by leading air conditioner companies (photo: screenshot)
These prices are even expected to increase even more over time, due to the centralized market structure created by order of the Ministry of Economy and the lack of alternatives.
The consumption of air conditioner gas that exists today, 410R gas, will accompany us for many more years, in which the amount of imported gas will actually be reduced again and again according to the milestones established in the regulations.
According to the petitioners, the implementation of the Montreal Protocol and the reduction of the use of gases that damage the ozone layer as part of preventive measures for worsening the climate crisis is definitely appropriate and required, especially at this time.
However, the way in which the amendment to the regulations is implemented by the CEO's order is neither reasonable nor proportionate and completely different from a similar CEO's order in the past regarding similar gas, 22R, which was implemented with great success while maintaining the required environmental principles.
Also, a similar application regarding R410 gas quotas would have greatly reduced the gas without harming the reduction of total imports, as required by the Montreal Protocol and by the regulations.
Air conditioner technician (Photo: ShutterStock)
Furthermore, according to the petitioners, the current provision in itself regarding the limitation of the number of importers increases the cost of gas to the point of harming the ability of the Israeli public to deal with the emerging and worsening climate crisis in a country with a desert climate, and deepens the cost of living and energy poverty in Israel - a phenomenon in which the risks to at-risk populations, such as the elderly, increase and poor due to the difficulty of cooling their house, as the Ministry of Environmental Protection recently warned.
The petitioners claim that it is clear that the problem will worsen further in the future.
While the total quantities of imported gas will be reduced again and again in order to comply with the provisions of the treaty and these limited quantities will be sold, in the absence of competition, at higher and higher amounts, the import of new generation air conditioners, which does not require the use of R410 gas, is not at all on the horizon, since a standard has not yet been set for it and the Ministry of Economy has not yet He started training technicians to handle it and even the legislation required for this has not yet been enacted
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