Following litigation brought by the Austrian consumer association “Verein für Konsumenteninformation” (VKI), another court recently regarded carbon-neutral claims as misleading:

An Austrian airline had advertised “carbon neutral flights” to Venice to attend the “Biennale” art festival. The VKI filed a lawsuit regarding this claim, arguing that it was misleading, because the airline mainly used regular aviation fluid and only added a very small fraction of sustainable aviation fluid (SAF), which was made from used cooking oil.

According to the findings of the court, due to technical standards, only 5% SAF can be added and the airline actually had only added as little as 0.4% SAF. In addition, even if SAF is used, this only reduces carbon emissions by approximately 80%. Finally, SAF was only added if the customer paid a surcharge on the ticket price, which the airline had failed to dislose in its ad.

The Regional Court Korneuburg found the advertising to be misleading, because it suggested that the flight was 100% carbon-neutral due to the use of SAF. The clarifications that were provided on the airlines’ website were not regarded as sufficient to prevent the consumer from being misled.