EC concludes examination of potential Chinese biofuel imports fraud

The European Commission on Friday (18 July) said it has concluded its examination of fraud allegations notified by the German authorities in 2023 in relation to biodiesel imports from China and that the information gathered did not allow confirmation of the existence of fraud.

The Commission said the German authorities may perform additional verifications or investigations if they wish to do so.

While it did not confirm the existence of the fraud, the Commission identified some systemic weaknesses in the way certification audits have been conducted and is taking action to address these issues.

To tackle the risk of fraud in the biofuels market, the Commission is undertaking a range of actions in the short and medium term, in particular in areas where the Implementing Regulation on sustainability certification (EU/2022/996) can be further strengthened. 

The Commission has set up a working group with EU countries under the Committee on the Sustainability of Biofuels, Bioliquids, and Biomass Fuels to reflect on a revision of the legal text. The working group has made good progress on additional measures that could better prevent fraud in the future. The Commission plans to finalise the text, after input from stakeholders, in cooperation with EU countries, in early 2026.

Furthermore, the Commission is discussing with EU countries on a timeline for the full mandatory deployment of the Union database for biofuels. This EU global traceability system is functional and is being used by an increasing number of operators but its mandatory systemic use by all relevant businesses is a pre-condition for its success.

The Commission will also continue its technical work on fraud prevention and effective sustainability certification to support the voluntary schemes with the implementation of the existing rules. These rules can tackle many of the identified cases if correctly and harmoniously applied by the certification bodies.

On the basis of the review of the current standards and the experience from examining the alleged fraud cases, the Commission may request voluntary schemes to adopt and implement action plans or review the implementation of already existing plans on fraud prevention. 

Photo credit: Guillaume Périgois on Unsplash
Published: 22 July, 2025