"Landmark Victory In The Fight Against Greenwashing": Dutch Airline KLM's Sustainability Ad Claims Are Misleading, Court Rules

A court in the Netherlands handed down what environmental campaigners say is a “historic” verdict today against Dutch airline KLM, finding the company’s sustainability claims in its advertising – including its professed commitment to the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement – to be misleading and in violation of EU consumer law. The ruling sets a “major legal precedent with ramifications across the international aviation sector and for all companies advertising their commitment to the Paris Agreement,” according to UK-based environmental law organization ClientEarth, which represented Dutch climate groups Fossielvrij and Reclame Fossielvrij in their landmark greenwashing lawsuit against KLM.

“Companies that publicly advertise commitments to the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate must now ensure that those claims are feasible and concrete, or risk losing in Court,” Johnny White, an attorney with ClientEarth, said in a statement. “This judgment is nothing short of a wake-up call for highly polluting industries and companies that try to sell the image of commitment to the Paris climate goals without having the plans to get there. It leaves the airline industry’s climate PR strategy dead in the water.”

The lawsuit, filed in July 2022, was the first worldwide to challenge an airline’s marketing and advertising as unsubstantiated greenwashing in court. The District Court of Amsterdam ultimately agreed with claimants Fossielvrij and Reclame Fossielvrij that KLM’s ads were in breach of the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. The court found the airline’s claims around reducing the climate impact of aviation through use of offsetting products like so-called “sustainable aviation fuels” (SAF) or through supposed carbon offset programs like reforestation were misleading. The ruling, for example, stated: “At the moment, SAF's share in total fuel consumption (and hence CO2 emissions reduction) is still very limited due to various reasons. A more substantial share can only be expected in the distant future, and thus uncertain. The expression is therefore misleading.”

In a statement responding to the ruling, KLM said it appreciates the court’s clarification “about what is possible and how we can continue to communicate transparently and honestly about our approach and activities.” KLM further said that it is reviewing the ruling and plans to “return to it substantively at a later date.”

White said the court’s decision should serve as a warning to other airlines that use dubious carbon offsetting claims in their marketing. “All airlines and other companies making claims about their products’ environmental impacts that are based on offsetting should take heed from this ruling,” he said.

Climate-related marketing claims based on offsetting or compensating activities are increasingly coming under legal scrutiny. Just last year, for example, courts in Sweden, Germany, and Austria ruled that these types of claims were misleading to consumers. The ruling in Austria came in a greenwashing lawsuit filed by Austria's Association for Consumer Information (VKI) against Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian Airlines challenging the airline's ads touting "CO2 neutral" flights that used sustainable aviation fuel. Other airlines ar currently facing similar legal challenges, including an OECD complaint filed against Virgin Atlantic and British Airways in the UK, and a consumer class action lawsuit brought against Delta Air Lines in the US.

In the KLM case, the Dutch court stopped short of issuing a ban on future similar claims, and KLM had already retracted its challenged advertising in response to the lawsuit. The Dutch campaign groups are still calling for a tobacco-style ban on fossil fuel advertising.

“Tackling greenwashing is currently a cat-and-mouse game. Just when one misleading campaign is stopped, ten more pop up. You can only react when the harm is already done: people have already seen the ads,” said Rosanne Rootert, campaigner at Fossielvrij Reclame. “A complete ban on fossil advertising, such as for air travel, is the only way to truly eliminate greenwashing by these companies. Lawsuits like this would then be unnecessary.”

The Amsterdam district court also found that KLM’s claims around its commitment to the Paris Agreement and its aims to achieve net-zero emissions were too optimistic, and therefore misleading, given the limited decarbonization measures it is implementing. ClientEarth said the court’s ruling sets a precedent for corporations touting unsubstantiated net zero promises, and that companies’ “public relations firms and advertising agencies should also take note.”

“Today’s judgment is a landmark victory in the fight against greenwashing,” Hiske Arts, campaigner for Fossielvrij, said in a statement. “The significance of the Court’s decision is clear: companies are not allowed to claim they are tackling dangerous climate change when in reality they are fueling the crisis.”


​The story has been updated to include KLM's response to the ruling as well as with additional context on greenwashing litigation and an additional photo.