The European Commission announced an agreement with over 20 airlines* including Air France, Lufthansa and KLM, with commitments from the companies to stop using environmental claims considered by the EU’s national consumer authorities to be misleading, including claims that the CO2 emissions from flying could be offset by paying additional fees to support climate projects or the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
The agreement follows the launch of a complaint in 2023 by the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) targeting misleading climate-related claims by several European airlines, and calling on European authorities to require airlines to stop making claims aimed at giving consumers the impression that flying is sustainable, as well as to have the airlines reimburse customers for extra “green fees” paid based on misleading environmental claims.
In 2024, following the BEUC complaint, the EU Commission and the Network of Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Authorities said that they had identified several types of potentially misleading practices by the airlines, including creating the incorrect impression that additional fees to finance climate projects or the use of alternative fuels can reduce or fully counterbalance CO2 emissions, using the term “sustainable aviation fuel” without clearly justifying the fuels’ environmental impact, using terms such as “green”, “sustainable” or “responsible” in an absolute way, and claiming that the airline is moving toward environmental performance such as net zero emissions without clear and verifiable commitments, targets and an independent monitoring system.
Additional practices identified included presenting a “calculator” of a flight’s emissions without providing scientific proof on the reliability of the calculation, and presenting consumers with a comparison of the CO2 emissions of flights without providing sufficient information on the elements behind the comparisons.
The Commission and CPC network launched a dialogue with the airlines, asking them to outline proposals to bring their practices in line with EU consumer law, and warned that they may face enforcement actions by the CPC authorities if they fail to take steps to solve the concerns, including sanctions.
Under the new agreement, each of the airlines have committed to stop claiming that the CO2 emissions of a specific flight could be neutralized, offset, or directly reduced by consumer financial contributions to climate protection projects or alternative aviation fuels.
Additional commitments discussed with the airlines included using the term “sustainable aviation fuels” only if substantiated with appropriate clarifications, refraining from the use of vague green language or terminology, providing more information on claims about future environmental performance – such as achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions – with clear timelines, achievable steps, and the types of emissions concerned, ensuring that CO2 emissions calculations are displayed in a clear and transparent way, and providing sufficient scientific evidence and information to support claims of improved environmental impact.
The Commission said that the national consumer protection authorities will monitor the airlines’ implementation of the commitments along the timeline communicated by each airline, adding that they may may also proceed with enforcement measures against airlines that have not provided sufficient commitments or fail to correctly implement the commitments.
Agustín Reyna, Director General of BEUC, said:
“It is excellent news airlines have agreed to stop luring consumers with green promises following our complaint to the European Commission. It was high time airlines stopped painting flying as a sustainable option. Paying ‘green fares’ to plant trees can never guarantee to suck aircraft emissions out of the air.”
*Airlines agreeing to change their environmental claims practices included Air Baltic, Air Dolomiti, Air France, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Easyjet, Finnair, KLM, Lufthansa, Luxair, Norwegian, Ryanair, SAS, SWISS, TAP, Transavia France, Transavia CV, Volotea, Vueling, and Wizz Air.
