Waste materials: Minor penalty due to incorrect Eural code classification

Code without an asterisk ("*")

The company involved, the defendant, allegedly intentionally used an incorrect Eural code on 27 waste transfer notes. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) argued that the company had deliberately chosen an Eural code without an asterisk ("*"), thereby pretending that the waste materials in question were non-hazardous. According to the OM, however, the waste materials were indeed hazardous. The company allegedly made this choice because it would otherwise not have been permitted to accept the waste. In the indictment, the OM asserted that one specific Eural code should have been selected.

The company argued that this was an administrative error. It had indeed been the intention to use an Eural code with an asterisk ("*"). This had gone wrong at some point, and the unnoticed error had never been corrected. However, the waste materials had been processed as hazardous waste.

The Court ruled that the Eural code chosen by the company was incorrect. However, the Court also found that the code the OM proposed was not the only appropriate code either. The code that the defence argued might also have been applicable.

Intent

The defence's argument that the error was unintentional, was rejected. The Court ruled that the business process was inadequately structured due to a lack of sufficient control mechanisms. By failing to implement these, the defendant knowingly accepted the significant risk that an incorrect code would be entered and subsequently go unnoticed. Consequently, the Court found it proven that the company was guilty of forgery (valsheid in geschrifte). According to the Court, the incorrect code could pose a danger to third parties (such as inspectors) who were unable to identify that they were dealing with hazardous waste.

Penalty

The difference in the 'assessment' of the facts between the OM and the Court became apparent during sentencing: whereas the OM had demanded a fine of EUR 125,000 (of which EUR 50,000 was suspended), the Court imposed a fully unsuspended fine of EUR 13,500. This amounts to EUR 500 per incorrect waste transfer note. This seems minor, given the ruling that intent was established.