Iberdrola and others vs. Repsol

On February 21, 2024, Iberdrola Energía España, a major renewable energy company, submitted a claim before the Commercial Court of Santander, in Spain, on the basis that Repsol commits irregularities such as "greenwashing", "marketing strategies aimed at exaggerating, or directly falsifying, a company's commitment to sustainability and the environment" and "acts of deception and "misleading omissions." Iberdrola states that Repsol, Spanish major fossil fuel player, will continue to grow in electricity customers and will continue to offer society present and future energy solutions, such as "renewable fuels"" which are a "threat to the false discourse that electrification is the only solution to reduce CO2 emissions in transportation." On February 21, 2025, the Commercial Court ruled in favor of Iberdrola, and partially upheld its claim against Repsol, S.A. and its subsidiaries for unfair competition through misleading advertising. The court found that multiple environmental claims made by Repsol on its corporate website and in some advertising campaigns were misleading and thus constituted acts of unfair competition under Articles 5 and 7 of Spain’s Unfair Competition Law (LCD). These misleading claims gave the false impression that Repsol was a sustainable company or was leading the energy transition, despite the fact that over 99% of its business was still linked to fossil fuels. Note that following this claim submitted before the Commercial Court No. 2 of Santander, environmental and consumer NGOs and associations have submitted claims before the Regulatory Authority (National Commission for Markets and Competition) highlighting the contribution of Repsol to climate change and accusing Repsol of a greenwashing strategy.