According to a judgment by the Higher Regional Court of Schleswig on June 30, 2022, the advertising claim “climate neutral” does not constitute misleading and does not violate competition law (Ref.: 6 U 46/21).
Climate change has entered the consciousness of many consumers. Accordingly, climate neutrality is an important advertising argument. Various competition associations have already sued against advertising claims with climate neutrality when there are no further explanations on how it is achieved, explains the law firm MTR Rechtsanwälte.
The Schleswig-Holstein Higher Regional Court has now dismissed such a lawsuit from a competition association. In the underlying case, a manufacturer of household and hygiene products had printed the statement “climate neutral” on a specific line of garbage bags, alongside its brand logo. The suing competition association considered this misleading. Consumers would understand this to mean that the garbage bags were manufactured in a climate-neutral manner. In fact, climate neutrality would only be achieved through subsequent compensation. Consumers were not explicitly informed of this, and a reference to the manufacturer’s website was deemed insufficient according to the competition association.
In the first instance, the Kiel Regional Court followed this argumentation and banned the advertisement of garbage bags with the statement “climate neutral.” However, in the appeal process, the Higher Regional Court of Schleswig viewed this differently and overturned the ruling. The advertising claim “climate neutral” is not misleading and does not violate the Act Against Unfair Competition (UWG). There is no risk that the consumer falsely assumes that the company offers exclusively climate-neutral products. This applies all the more when the consumer is presented with several product variants of the company under the same label but in different variations alongside each other, and the “climate-neutral” garbage bags are also significantly more expensive than others, according to the Higher Regional Court.
The statement “climate neutral” is also not misleading because the consumer does not know how climate neutrality is achieved without further explanations. Unlike the term environmental friendliness, the specification of climate friendliness contains a clear and verifiable statement. The consumer is promised a production with a balanced CO2 balance by the statement “climate neutral” on the garbage bags, without going into detail on how this is achieved. However, it is unlikely that the consumer therefore assumes that garbage bags are produced entirely without CO2 emissions, according to the Higher Regional Court.
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