PARIS, OCT 21 (AFP/APP):European airlines are starting to become prudent when promoting flight carbon-offset measures, such as reforestation, following courtroom losses and stepped-up pressure by regulators.
Dutch airline KLM, in March last year, lost a case about greenwashing — a practice in which companies are regarded as claiming to be more environmentally responsible than they really are.
An Amsterdam court ruled it misled consumers with “vague and general” adverts about efforts to reduce the environmental impact of flying, including painting “an overly rosy picture” about the impact of measures such as adopting sustainable aviation fuel.
In March, a German court banned airline giant Lufthansa from saying in its advertisements that passengers could “compensate” for carbon emissions from flights, finding that the claims were “misleading”.
Lufthansa had already received a red card from British regulators over its ads in 2023, as well as from Belgian regulators in prior years.
In 2023, the European consumer rights umbrella group BEUC filed a complaint with the European Commission, accusing European airlines of greenwashing and unfair commercial practices for inflating their green credentials.
A year later, the commission opened a probe, which is still ongoing, into 20 firms over misleading green claims.
BEUC said earlier this year that some airlines have since removed or changed their climate-related marketing claims.
For example, Norwegian Air Shuttle dropped climate claims from its reservation process, while Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air stopped offering passengers the possibility of offsetting their CO2 emissions.
“However, these improvements should not hide that greenwashing is still widespread,” said BEUC’s director general, Agustin Reyna.
