European officials have sent letters to 20 airlines identifying several types of potentially misleading green claims and telling them to bring their practices in line with EU consumer law within 30 days or face sanctions.

The Consumer Protection Cooperation panel inside the European Commission focused on claims made by airlines that the CO2 emissions caused by a flight could be offset by climate projects or through the use of sustainable fuels, to which the consumers could contribute by paying additional fees. The authorities are concerned that the identified practices can be considered as ‘misleading’ actions or omissions.

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The issues (listed in the panel below, include claiming that the airline is moving towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions without stating targets or providing an independent monitoring system. CO2 ‘calculators’ provided on some airline’s websites have also come in for scrutiny as the panel believes that some have no basis in science.

“If we want responsible consumers, we need to provide them with accurate information. More and more travellers care about their environmental footprint and choose products and services with better environmental performance. They deserve accurate and scientific answers, not vague or false claims,” said Věra Jourová, Vice-President for Values and Transparency
“The Commission is fully committed to empowering consumers in the green transition and fighting greenwashing. We expect airlines, as well as any other industry operator, to make a responsible use of environmental claims”.

The airlines will have 30 days to respond to the points raised by the EC. Action plans can then be drawn up, and further non-compliance may result in as-yet unspecified sanctions.

Key elements of the action:

The European Commission and the CPC network, have identified several types of potentially misleading practices by 20 airlines, such as:

• creating the incorrect impression that paying an additional fee to finance climate projects with less environmental impact or to support the use of alternative aviation fuels can reduce or fully counterbalance the CO2 emissions;

• using the term “sustainable aviation fuels” (SAF) without clearly justifying the environmental impact of such fuels;
• using the terms “green”, “sustainable” or “responsible” in an absolute way or use other implicit green claims;
• claiming that the airline is moving towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) or any future environmental performance, without clear and verifiable commitments, targets and an independent monitoring system;
• presenting consumers with a “calculator” for the CO2 emissions of a specific flight, without providing sufficient scientific proof on whether such calculation is reliable and without the information on the elements used for such calculation;
• presenting consumers with a comparison of flights regarding their CO2 emissions, without providing sufficient and accurate information on the elements the comparison is based on.