Environmental and consumer protection association, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) has filed four new lawsuits for alleged consumer deception against companies that advertise their products as 'climate-neutral' in a particularly brazen way.
Lawsuits have been filed against Danone Deutschland GmbH concerning Evian mineral water, the Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings GmbH, food discounter Netto Marken-Discount Stiftung & Co. KG and food delivery service HelloFresh Germany.
Jürgen Resch, national director at DUH said, "An airline that sells its customers CO2-neutral flights is highly misleading. A mineral water packaged in thick-walled plastic, which is carted through half of Europe to our food markets, cannot be climate-neutral."
According to Resch, these companies are "claiming to offset the climate impact of their product through questionable compensation projects."
"Consumers have a right to know the direct environmental impact, only then can they choose the right alternative. What we experience here, is a real competition with increasingly brazen claims of alleged climate neutrality through an uncontrolled sale of indulgences," he added.
Other Companies
DUH has also called on six other companies to issue 'cease-and-desist' declarations backed by penalties and to undertake to no longer advertise their products or companies as 'climate neutral' or even 'CO2 neutral'.
The companies include Füchse Handball Berlin GmbH, delivery service Gorillas Operations Germany B.V. & Co KG, mobility service provider Intelligent Apps GmbH, coffee companies Luigi Lavazza Deutschland GmbH and UniCaps GmbH, and fuel retailer Beer Energien GmbH & Co KG.
Elsewhere, the DUH has initiated legal action against Lidl for alleged 'repeated false claims' in connection with claims that their one-way plastic 'recycling bottle' is at least ecologically equivalent to comparable reusable bottles.
Read More: France's Danone Faces Legal Action Over Plastic Use And Reporting Practices
© 2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
