DUH v. ZG Raiffeisen (Advertising with supposedly climate-neutral heating oil)

The Regional Court of Karlsruhe (Landgericht Karlsruhe) upheld an action brought by the German Environmental Action (Deutsche Umwelthilfe, DUH) against ZG Raiffeisen Energie GmbH concerning the advertising of heating oil as “climate neutral.” The court prohibited the company from continuing to advertise its heating oil in this manner.

The court found that ZG Raiffeisen had provided insufficient and contradictory information concerning the emissions covered by its claimed compensation measures. In particular, the company failed to adequately disclose which emissions were compensated in qualitative, quantitative, and temporal terms. The court noted that the compensation did not cover emissions associated with crude-oil extraction, including methane emissions, or the transportation of crude oil from extraction sites to the refinery.

The case therefore concerned whether an unqualified “climate neutral” claim was misleading where the underlying compensation mechanism did not cover the full range of emissions associated with the product and consumers were not adequately informed about the scope of the compensation. The judgment was issued in proceedings concerning unfair commercial practices and environmental advertising.