Environmental groups to take KLM to court

Environmental group Fossielvrij NL, supported by ClientEarth and Reclame Fossielvrij, has filed a claim against KLM, an airline, in Amsterdam’s district court. According to the statement from ClientEarth, this follows a pre-action letter that was delivered to the airline during its recent annual general meeting. The statement says, “the lawsuit argues that KLM’s Fly Responsibly campaign breaches the Dutch implementation of the EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive by giving customers the false impression that its flights won’t worsen the climate emergency. It also claims marketing of KLM’s CO2ZERO offset product, through which customers donate towards reforestation schemes and ‘sustainable aviation fuels’, is unlawful, as well as the ‘Real Deal’ discount flight sale promoted in May as a ‘sustainable fuel bonus'”. The greenwashing allegations against KLM come amidst a global backdrop of financial regulators keeping an eye on misleading information in green financial products. KLM has denied these allegations.