Airline KLM sued for ‘greenwashing’ adverts

’Fly Responsibly’ campaign targeted by environmental groups

A KLM Boeing 737-800 takes off from Manchester Airport. (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Archive)

Dutch airline KLM is being sued by campaigning groups for alleged “greenwashing” in its adverts.

The suit was filed by Fossielvrij NL, environmental law charity ClientEarth and Reclame Fossielvrij in the District Court of Amsterdam on 6 July.

It accuses the Dutch subsidiary of Air France KLM of misleading the public about how sustainable its flights are, thereby breaching European consumer law.

Campaigners have specifically targeted KLM’s “Fly Responsibly” advertising campaign, which launched in December 2021, encouraging customers to embrace a “sustainable future” for aviation by offsetting their flights or by paying to help finance “greener” aviation fuels through the carrier’s CO2ZERO scheme.

The lawsuit alleges that the transition to “sustainable” aviation through the means of more efficient aircraft, greener fuels or other techno-fixes cannot happen in time to meet the worldwide climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

The groups involved argue that a continual reduction in flights is necessary to lower carbon emissions enough to reach net zero by 2050.

“KLM has...stuck by the false message that it is on the path to more sustainable flying,” said Hiske Arts, a campaigner for Fossielvrij NL.

“There is no way it can do this while planning continuous air traffic growth that will fuel the breakdown of our climate.”

KLM met with the groups involved ahead of the suit being filed, but no agreement could be found.

“It would certainly not be in our interests to misinform our customers,” the airline said in a statement.

“It’s our responsibility to make future travel as sustainable as possible.

“We believe that our communications comply with the applicable legislation and regulations.”

The carrier says it has invested millions of euros in building a more sustainable fleet.

It’s not the first airline to be taken to court accused of “greenwashing”.

In 2020, Ryanair’s advertising campaign claiming it was Europe’s “lowest emissions airline“ was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which branded the statements “misleading”.

Europe’s biggest airline started running the adverts in the press, on TV and on the radio at the end of 2019, billing itself as a “low CO2 emissions airline”.

The campaign quickly stacked up complaints from consumers who argued that airlines, by their very nature, are not “low emissions”.

The carrier based its claims on data from the European aviation organisation Eurocontrol and airline efficiency rankings produced by Brighter Plant.

However, the ASA took issue with some of the assertions due to the evidence used to back them up; one of the airline efficiency rankings used by Ryanair to support its claims was from 2011.

“We told Ryanair to ensure that when making environmental claims, they held adequate evidence to substantiate them and to ensure that the basis of those claims were made clear,” said the regulator.