Apple Watch
not
CO2-neutral.
Apple Watch
not
CO2-neutral.
from
No advertising with the term CO2-neutral: The Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main prohibits the US company from advertising its smartwatches with the term CO2-neutral in Germany.
CO2-neutral misleading in individual cases
The Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main has prohibited the company from advertising its smartwatches with the term “CO2-neutral” in a ruling dated 26.08.2025, Ref. 3-06 O 8/24. Deutsche Umwelthilfe had taken action against the company and objected to the use of the term in the advertising for various models of the smartwatches on offer as misleading. In the advertisements in question, Apple had emphasized that the majority of emissions were avoided during production and transport. A small remaining proportion would be offset by nature-based compensation projects. However, the court did not consider the specific projects to be sufficient in the individual case and ruled in favor of Deutsche Umwelthilfe.
Projects without long-term security
The company had referred to a reforestation project for eucalyptus trees in Paraguay with regard to compensation projects. During the proceedings, it became clear that these projects were not designed for the long term. Only 25 percent of the planned reforestation area of the project was secured for a longer period of time. The remaining 75 percent, on the other hand, was only secured until 2029. This narrow time limit was not sufficient to meet the expectations of the targeted consumers for sustainable and long-term CO2 compensation. According to the court, consumers would expect a significantly longer period of time. In assessing this period, the court referred, among other things, to the Paris Climate Agreement. In light of the international climate targets to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, it was assumed that the advertised compensation measures would be understood to ensure the reliability of the projects until around the middle of the century. This was not the case.
Greenwashing Is being curbed
The decision is in line with other decisions that subject advertising claims relating to the climate neutrality and carbon footprint of the advertised products and services to a critical assessment (see Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court, Judgment of 25.03.2025, Ref. 3 HK O 6524/24 or OLG Cologne, Judgment of 13.12.2024, Ref. 6 U 45/24 ). This trend shows that advertising with green claims is consistently scrutinized by the courts and that greenwashing is not acceptable. Greenwashing refers to marketing strategies with which companies create the impression of being particularly environmentally friendly without the underlying measures or evidence actually supporting this claim.
Outlook
In addition to the restrictions on the use of terms such as “CO2-neutral” and “climate-neutral” developed by case law, the national implementation of EU directives, which provide for further stricter requirements for the substantiation and verification of sustainability claims, will also be added in the coming years. In future, it will therefore become increasingly important for companies to ensure that their sustainability claims are legally compliant. They are therefore well advised to have their environmental advertising checked by a lawyer at an early stage in order to avoid legal risks and to meet the increasing requirements of case law and EU regulation with confidence.
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