Commercial enterprises and industrial plants - complaints about noise, air pollution and odours

Would you like to submit a complaint about noise, air pollution or odours caused by commercial operations or industrial plants in your neighbourhood?

Do you live near commercial operations or industrial plants and feel unacceptably disturbed by noise, air pollution and odour emissions? In such cases, you can contact the relevant monitoring authorities. They will provide you with information on the applicable legal regulations.
Emissions from operating facilities are assessed in accordance with the regulations of the Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG). Harmful environmental impacts within the meaning of the BImSchG are emissions which, due to their nature, extent and duration, are likely to cause danger, considerable disadvantages or considerable nuisance to the general public or the neighbourhood.

As this is a notification of a complaint, there are no special requirements for submitting a complaint.

In the case of complaints concerning emissions from operational facilities, please contact your responsible regional council. The competent authority will check on site whether noise, air pollution or odours are causing a significant nuisance to the neighbourhood and will arrange for the necessary measures to be taken.

To facilitate processing, you should inform the monitoring authority as soon as possible of any harmful environmental effects. This makes it easier for the authority to determine whether an installation has malfunctioned or which particular substances were being processed at the time.

The processing time varies depending on the time and effort required for the investigations to be carried out by the authority.

You can submityour complaint about a commercial facility in your neighbourhood online. Attachments that substantiate your complaint can be attached in PDF, JPG, JPEG and PNG format.