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In the framework of the European RFCS project ANGELHY, the resistance of built‐up members fabricated from angle sections is studied, amongst others. This paper focusses on the resistance of back‐to‐back connected angle sections. The studied built‐up members are connected through bolted packing plates. Due to the flexibility of this connection, the back‐to‐back connected members do not fully act as a single homogeneous member but the connection stiffness has to be accounted for. However, Eurocode 3 does not provide a clear and generally accepted method for the determination of the buckling resistance of back‐to‐back connected members that do not respect a limit distance of 15imin between the packing plates. This limit is very low and therefore there exists a need of a design method overcoming the limitations. Throughout this paper, a design method will be derived based on a comprehensive numerical study. The numerical model is based on solid finite elements and has been validated with physical tests. Owing to the use of solid elements, it is possible to model explicitly the bolts, the packing plates and all contact regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]