Dutch airlineKLMhas been sued by the campaign group on suspicion of "greenwashing" in an advertisement. The
proceeding was filed in the District Court of Amsterdam on July 6 by Fossielvrij NL, the Environmental Law CharityClientEarth, and Reclame Fossielvrij.
Air France's Dutch subsidiary, KLM, has misleaded the public about flight sustainability and accused it of violating European consumer law.
Campaigners are specifically targeting KLM's "Fly Responsibly" advertising campaign, launched in December 2021, to offset flights or raise "more environmentally friendly" aviation fuel. By helping, we encourage our customers to embrace the “sustainable future” of aviation. Through the airline's CO2 ZERO scheme.
The lawsuit is "sustainable" with more efficient aircraft, more environmentally friendly fuels, or other technical modifications to achieve the global climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement. He claims that the transition to aviation will not be in time.
Relevant groups argue that continuous reductions in flights are needed to reduce carbon emissions sufficient to reach net zero by 2050.
"KLM is ... on the road to more sustainable flight," said Hiske Arts, campaigner at FossielvrijNL.
"There is no way we can do this while planning continuous air traffic growth to fuel our climate collapse."
KLM proceedings I met with the relevant groups before the proceedings were filed, but no agreement was found.
"It is not in our interest to provide false information to our customers," the airline said in a statement.
"It is our responsibility to make future travel as sustainable as possible.
" Our communication complies with applicable laws and regulations. I believe it is. "
The airline says it has invested millions of euros in building a more sustainable fleet.
Not the first airline to be charged with "greenwashing".
In 2020, Ryanair's advertising campaign, which claims to be the "lowest-emission airline" in Europe, was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). ".
Europe's largest airlines began advertising in the media, television and radio at the end of 2019, claiming to be "low CO2 emissions airlines." The
campaign quickly piled up complaints from consumers who claimed that airlines were not "low emissions" by their nature.
Airlines make claims based on data from Eurocontrol, a European airline organization, and airline efficiency rankings created by Brighter Plant.
However, the ASA had problems with some assertions due to the evidence used to back them up. One of the airline efficiency rankings that Ryanairused to support that claim was in 2011. Make sure the rationale for those claims is clear, "said the regulatory agency.
