The drugstore chain dm is not allowed to advertise its products as "climate-neutral" or even "environmentally neutral" as before. This has now been decided by the Karlsruhe Regional Court. Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) had filed a lawsuit against dm.
DUH had filed a lawsuit against dm because neither the products advertised as "climate neutral" nor "environmentally neutral" nor the company's website provided sufficient information for consumers on how to compensate for climate-damaging emissions or environmental impacts. Furthermore, the regional court confirmed DUH's criticism of the compensation projects. Consumers cannot understand how the claimed compensation payments are intended to neutralise the overall climate and environmental impact.
"Today's judgement against the drugstore chain dm is a milestone for consumer protection. The drugstore chain is no longer allowed to advertise products as "climate neutral" or "environmentally neutral". So far, too little information has been provided on how the supposed climate neutrality is achieved and the emission credits purchased for a forest protection project in the Peruvian Amazon are also unsuitable for neutralising the climate impact of the advertised products. Our success in court shows that The time when companies deceive consumers with supposed climate neutrality is over."
Jürgen Resch, Federal Managing Director of DUH
The DUH calls for a general ban on misleading advertising claimsthat claim products, companies or services are "climate neutral". Since May 2022, the environmental and consumer protection organisation Legal proceedings against 24 companies and called on them to abandon advertising with supposed "climate neutrality" for various reasons.
Retail companies and industry are increasingly advertising products and services as "climate-neutral", "climate-positive" or with similar terms. This applies to air travel, fuels, food and cosmetics, for example. In reality the companies either completely or partially conceal how they are supposedly offsetting climate-damaging emissions or refer to dubious offsetting projects, which usually only receive a small amount of money. However, hardly any emissions are saved. Verifiable information on payments, projects and actual climate impact is sometimes unavailable or incomprehensible to consumers.
The company is convinced that with the "Pro Climate" products make an effective contribution to the environmentemphasises Kerstin Erbe, dm Managing Director responsible for Product Management and Sustainability, in a reaction to the Karlsruhe ruling.
Moreover, the company had already made its decision in autumn 2022, regardless of today's ruling, no longer advertise "climate neutral" with the ClimatePartner label in its current form on its own-brand products. His "Pro Climate" products have also been further developed in the meantime and are now being the new "environmentally neutral action" seal. The environmental impact of products labelled in this way has been reduced wherever possible.
dm now intends to analyse the court's written reasoning and then decide together with Greenzero how to proceed. Greenzero is responsible for the scientific approach to environmental neutrality.
Sources: DUH / dm
