Green (f)lying

BEUC and 23 of its member organisations from 19 countries filed a complaint on 22 June 2023 to the European Commission and the network of consumer protection authorities (CPC) denouncing misleading climate-related claims by 17 European airlines. According to a new legal analysis commissioned by BEUC, such claims breach the EU rules tackling unfair commercial practices (EU Directive 2005/29/EC).

Members are Altroconsumo in Italy, DECO in Portugal, Асоциация Активни потребители/Active consumers in Bulgaria, Forbrugerrådet Tænk in Denmark, EKPIZO in Greece, CLCV and UFC-Que Choisir in France, OCU, CECU and ASUFIN in Spain, Tudatos Vásárlók Egyesülete in Hungary, Fundacja Konsumentów and Federacja Konsumentów in Poland, Testachats/Testaankoop in Belgium, Spoločnosť ochrany spotrebiteľov (S.O.S.) in Slovakia, Kuluttajaliitto – Konsumentförbundet ry in Finland, Forbrukerrådet in Norway, Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband in Germany, Sveriges Konsumenter in Sweden, Arbeiterkammer in Austria, Fédération romande des consommateurs in Switzerland, Zveza potrošnikov Slovenije in Slovenia, Consumentenbond (The Netherlands).

Green (F)lying action - map of participating BEUC members

As a solution, we are calling for the following action:

We are calling for a Europe-wide investigation into the issue and for the concerned airlines – and the entire sector – to stop making claims that give consumers the impression that flying is sustainable. This is simply untrue as flying is not sustainable and is not bound to become so in the near future. Where airlines have proposed consumers to pay extra ‘green’ fees based on such misleading claims, CPC authorities should request airlines to reimburse their customers.

In particular, we call on consumer protection authorities to:

Start a coordinated enforcement action and publish a joint position. This will be essential to send a clear and strong signal to the airlines concerned and to the entire sector about the misleading nature of climate-related marketing claims based on offsetting schemes and/or supposed use of Sustainable Aviation Fuels.
Require airlines to stop misleading consumers through climate-related marketing claims and practices.
Clearly inform consumers that whereas airlines may invest in climate-protection projects, the latter should not be presented or featured as neutralising, offsetting or compensating flights’ emissions. Airlines should make it transparent to consumers that flying is not sustainable and cannot be sustainable in the near future.
Monitor the use of climate-related marketing claims by the entire airline sector and impose fines on airlines in the event that they would continue to use such claims (or a variation thereof) in a misleading manner.
Request airlines to reimburse consumers when airlines have proposed consumers to pay extra fees for flights presented as “greener”. If these amounts are small and the concerned consumers cannot be identified easily, the unduly received fees could be dedicated to an environmental or consumer protection cause, to be agreed upon by the CPC-Network.