On 29 January 2024, the Regional Court of Amberg made another decision concerning the advertising claim “climate-neutral” (“klimaneutral”) in which it held the phrase to be misleading (41 HK O 279/23).
The defendant, a large supermarket chain, sold a coffee drink with the advertisement “climate-neutral”, whereby this neutrality should be gained with the help of forest conservation projects. Also, a link has been provided to a website detailing the achievement of climate neutrality and specific projects.
The Court initially defines the term in question – in contrast to advertisement claims such as “climate-friendly”, climate neutrality would be a verifiable fact which therefore could be untrue in the sense of Sec. 5 para. 2 UWG (Law against unfair competition). Whereas the Court supports the view of the Higher Regional Courts Schleswig (6 U 46/21) and Düsseldorf (20 U 152/22) that deception is not given solely due to the fact that climate neutrality is achieved by compensation measures rather than the reduction of emissions, it found the concrete term to be untrue as the defeated company could not demonstrate how the necessary amount of CO2 is bound and that this sequestration is permanent.