The European consumer organization BEUC and 22 of its member associations from 18 countries, three in Spain, have filed a complaint with the European Commission and the network of consumer protection authorities (CPC) against 17 airlines for misleading climate claims. or ‘green wash’.

The joint statement, shared by the Federation of Consumers and Users CECU, highlights that airlines make marketing claims related to the climate in which they ask consumers to offset or neutralize the CO2 emissions of their flights.

“We believe that these practices are misleading and deceptive to consumers under the EU rules on unfair commercial practices (Directive 2005/29/EC), and amount to greenwashing,” BEUC explained.

Specifically, the 17 airlines denounced are Air Baltic, Air Dolomiti, Air France, Austrian, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Finnair, KLM, Lufthansa, Norwegian, Ryanair, SAS, SWISS, TAP, Volotea, Vueling and Wizz Air.

In Spain, the three consumer associations Asufin, CECU and OCU have participated in this joint action together with other European members of BEUC.

In addition, the associations jointly urge authorities to send a “clear and strong” signal to airlines and the entire aviation sector to “stop misleading consumers with climate-related commercial claims.”

“Airlines must be transparent that flying is not sustainable and will not be in the near future,” the statement added.

In cases where airlines have proposed to consumers to pay additional green fees based on such misleading claims, CPC authorities should ask airlines to refund the amount to their customers, the BEUC has demanded.

As for examples of “misleading claims”, associations of organizations have cited claims that “paying for additional credits can offset or neutralize the CO2 emissions of a flight” as, in their view, they are ” objectively misleading”, because “the climate benefits of offsetting activities are highly uncertain”.

In addition, BEUC has denounced that airlines deceive consumers by “charging them more” to contribute to the development of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).

“These fuels are not ready for the market and recently adopted EU legislation sets very low targets for the proportion they should represent in the aircraft fuel mix,” he explained.

On the other hand, consumer organizations have criticized that “implying that air transport can be sustainable”, responsible and ecological is misleading”, stating that “none of the strategies deployed by the aviation sector can currently avoid emissions of greenhouse gases”.

In addition, the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) has filed a complaint with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs for misleading advertising about the sustainability of air travel.

For OCU, it is “incorrect” to affirm that the greenhouse gas emissions generated by aviation are being offset or neutralized, “without providing reliable information to prove it.”

For this reason, it has requested the General Subdirectorate for Inspection and Penalty Procedure to assess the legality of this advertising and impose the corresponding sanction, according to a statement.

Likewise, from CECU they have criticized that they are already denouncing at the national level the impediment that greenwashing supposes for consumers and the urgency of taking measures by the authorities.

“The research that we publish today with the rest of the European organizations is a serious case of greenwashing, since we are talking about a sector that is very far from sustainability,” he lamented.

In this sense, he recalled the “urgency” of implementing a regulation of green advertising and an Observatory that controls these claims, as he requested a few months ago from Consumption jointly from CECU and more than 20 organizations.

For her part, the director of Asufin, Patricia Suárez, has criticized that ‘green washing’ is a concept that “involves misinformation and confusion for the consumer and, therefore, a lack of transparency.”

“It is the opposite of a responsible commercial practice and one that does not violate the rights of consumers,” he added.

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