New decision concerning CO2 positive and climate neutral production advertisement

In another case concerning, inter alia, the green claims “CO2 positive” (“CO2 positiv”) and “climate neutral production” (“klimaneutrale Herstellung”), the Munich Regional Court (LG München I) on December 8, 2023 held that an advertisement with these claims and without immediately recognizable further information regarding the background of the claims to be misleading (case no. 37 O 2041/23).

The defeated brewery added a QR code on the bottles which allegedly lead the relevant consumer to a website that provided information about the significance of the carbon footprint and the defendants’ measures in this regard. This, however, was insufficient in the eyes of the court. As other courts before, the Munich Regional Court stated that consumers would have a significant interest in the extent to which the respective claimed climate neutrality is actually achieved. This would be particularly the case as offsetting measures would nowadays often be at the center of public debate.

That being said, the court concluded that the assessment criteria for the claims “CO2 positive” and “climate-neutral production” would have to be provided and disclosed on the beer bottle itself, which was not the case in the present matter. The claims “CO2 positive” and “climate-neutral production” did not contain any indication that further information would be available on a homepage. The QR code was “also not printed in such a close spatial connection to the environmental advertising that it would be readily apparent to the customer that the information they need would be available in this way”. A reference by way of a clear and unambiguous link was thus missing. Eventually, the QR code in question did not lead directly to a website explaining the climate-friendly measures, but rather to the defendant's general homepage from where consumers would have to click through to the desired information on climate neutrality measures. Ultimately, the court held the provided information on climate neutrality as being insufficient. Precise information on the calculated carbon footprint and on the extent to which climate neutrality is to be achieved through offsetting measures or through savings were missing.

For more information on sustainability claims and greenwashing in Germany please see here.

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