A German court has ruled that the country’s flag carrier, Lufthansa, has effectively deceived passengers who were persuaded to pay for the airline’s so-called Green Fares with the promise that they could enjoy guilt-free air travel that is “at least CO2-neutral, if not climate-neutral.”
Lufthansa launched its Green Fares initiative in 2023, but the airline was almost immediately accused of ‘greenwashing’ over its claims that the fares offered a more sustainable way to travel by completely offsetting the flight-related CO2 emissions of anyone who pays for the Green Fare.
The fares were initially tested on a small number of environmentally conscious passengers from Denmark, Sweden, and Norway before being rolled out on short and medium-haul flights across Europe. Late last year, Lufthansa then expanded its Green Fares to long-haul flights across its worldwide network.
Despite the apparent success of the initiative, however, Lufthansa has been battling environmental campaigners who took the airline to court over what they claimed were misleading advertising claims.
Last week, a regional court in Cologne sided with the campaigners, ruling that the airline can no longer advertise its Green Fares with the statement “Offset CO2 emissions by contributing to climate protection projects.”
“The judgment of the Cologne Regional Court is one of the clearest and therefore most important that we have been able to achieve since the beginning of our court proceedings against consumer deception and greenwashing,” commented Jürgen Resch, the federal managing director of German environmental group DUH.
“The court confirms our criticism and addresses how one of the world’s largest airlines systematically deceives customers and pretends that air travel is climate-neutral in exchange for additional fees,” Resch added.
Lufthansa’s Green Fares promise to offset climate-damaging emissions in two ways. For shorter flights, 20% of emissions are meant to be offset through ‘sustainable aviation fuel’ while the remaining 80% of emissions are offset through “high-quality climate protection projects.”
On long-haul fares, however, only 10% of emissions are offset via sustainable aviation fuel, while the remaining 90% relies on other unspecified climate projects.
The Cologne court found that it remained unclear how CO2 emissions of a particular flight booking will be calculated and what climate damage it could cause.
“In the opinion of the Chamber, this suggests to the consumer that he can essentially make his flight climate-neutral with his cash payment, which is indisputably not true.”
The court’s ruling is currently not binding, and Lufthansa says it is carefully reviewing the decision of the court.
In a statement, the airline explained: “Lufthansa continuously pursues projects and measures with the aim of reducing the environmental impact of flying and always using required resources as efficiently as possible. Lufthansa relies on a continuous dialog and regularly informs its customers, stakeholders, and the interested public on a fact-based basis via various channels.”
“The Lufthansa Group relies on a differentiated climate project portfolio for CO2 compensation. The portfolio is continuously being developed and currently comprises 19 projects. All projects in the Lufthansa Group’s climate protection portfolio are certified according to the highest available standards, such as the Gold Standard.”
In 2023, Lufthansa was issued a warning from the Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom for an advert that made ‘misleading’ environmental claims.
The dispute was over a print ad that featured the slogan: “Lufthansa Group. Connecting the world. Protecting its future.”
The advertising regulator said consumers were likely to interpret the slogan as an “environmental reference to how Lufthansa’s approach to aviation was protecting the future of the world,” although Lufthansa argued that the slogan was simply a mission statement and not a promise.
Austrian Airlines, which is part of the Lufthansa Group, was forced to publish a court judgment finding it guilty of greenwashing following a 2023 court case.
The carrier was made to publish the judgment on the homepage of its global website after making inflated claims of operating a CO₂ neutral flight using ‘100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel’.
