LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST DELTA AIRLINES OVER CARBON-NEUTRAL CLAIMS
July 12, 2023
In May 2023, Delta Air Lines (“Delta”) was sued by various plaintiffs who alleged that Delta falsely misrepresented the environmental impact of its business operations and thereby obtained undue profit and market share. As background, Delta claims to be the “first carbon-neutral airline in the world” in advertisements, social media posts, and even airplane napkins provided to customers, based on the airline’s buying of carbon credits to fund projects that positively impact the environment to offset CO2 emissions from its normal operations. In the complaint, the plaintiffs argue that Delta’s carbon neutral label is misleading because the practice of carbon offsetting relies on imprecise overestimations of carbon emissions reductions and therefore, that Delta intentionally misled consumers and accused the company of “greenwashing” to increase profits. The complaint also cites several notable studies demonstrating that carbon offsets are unimpactful and even harmful because it overfunds environmental projects that would have occurred even without carbon credits and fails to motivate companies to further reduce the overall environmental impacts from their operations. Plaintiffs also claim that Delta knew or should have known that its carbon neutral labels were false and misleading and that by continuously representing itself as carbon neutral, Delta violated several California state laws, including its consumer protection laws. Similar claims could potentially be brought against other airlines under applicable state laws in other states. For example, there have been an increasing number of lawsuits brought challenging environmental and sustainability claims made by companies in their advertisings and marketing campaigns, and customers and regulators have put more pressure on companies to be sustainable and carbon neutral. As such, it is suggested that any sustainability claims be made carefully.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com 202-659-6622) or Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com 202-659-6665.
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