ASA continues to scrutinise aviation green claims

The question 

What can we learn from the Advertising Standards Authority's (ASA) recent rulings against green claims in the aviation industry?  

The key takeaway 

Organisations must continue to take great care with green claims made in their promotional materials. Material information must not be omitted if the effect is that consumers are likely to be misled in relation to the actual environmental impact of the product or service in question, or of the business as a whole. It goes without saying that it is particularly tricky to keep green claims in environmentally unfriendly industries (such as aviation) on the right side of the regulatory line. 

The background 

Since 2021, the ASA and CAP have published and updated guidance, including some that seeks to reflect the principles of the CMA, to help businesses with green claims. This followed research that ads containing environmental claims such as "carbon neutral" and "net zero" often mislead consumers in relation to the environmental impact of the business itself or the product or service in question. As seen with the publication of the ASA and CAP’s Annual Report 2023 (see our Summer 2024 Snapshot), climate change and environmental claims remain one of the ASA's key areas of focus. This has resulted in a continued regulatory crackdown on green claims and a spate of upheld ASA rulings. The aviation sector in particular has received considerable scrutiny from regulators and courts around the world, including by the European Commission.

London Luton Airport (LLA) 

Against this backdrop, the ASA has issued two relevant rulings on green claims made in the aviation sector. In July, the ASA ruled that LLA had misled consumers with ads in support of the proposed expansion of LLA featuring the headline claim “If we miss our environmental limits, our expansion will be stopped in its tracks”.  The ads omitted "significant information" about LLA's total greenhouse gas emissions (notably, the emissions caused by additional air traffic movements).

Virgin Atlantic

Similarly, in August, the ASA ruled that a radio ad in which Virgin Atlantic claimed to have become "the world’s first commercial airline to fly transatlantic on 100% sustainable aviation fuel" was misleading to consumers. The ASA determined that consumers would understand the phrase "100% sustainable aviation fuel" to mean that the fuel was 100% sustainable and had no negative environmental impact - whereas Virgin Atlantic had apparently sought to say that 100% of the fuel used was "sustainable aviation fuel" (a commonly used term in the industry).

In both cases, the ASA held that the ads must not appear in the same form again. 

These rulings come as the Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA) consultation on draft principles for consumer environmental information is set to close on 15 October 2024. The CAA says it hopes to ensure that consumers "can make informed choices about their flight booking selections through relevant, accurate, understandable, comparable and accessible information". Part of the CAA's strategy is to produce a set of principles for airlines and travel agents to follow when displaying environmental information to consumers in relation to advertised flights (such as flight emissions calculators).

Why is this important?

It is no surprise at all that the ASA continues to closely monitor the aviation industry, given its huge environmental impact. Once published, the CAA's principles will provide useful guidance to aviation organisations looking to publicise their environmental efforts in a way that complies with their regulatory obligations. Beyond the aviation industry, businesses in all sectors should take heed of the regulators' continued focus on green claims and the hard line that they are taking in relation to broad statements such as "sustainable". 

Any practical tips?

As the LLA ruling shows, all material information should be included in the ad itself, or else the ad may be found to be misleading to consumers. This includes incorporating information about a company's wider environmental impact, as LLA found out to its detriment. Further, advertisers must be able to substantiate any claims made. In line with regulatory guidance, this becomes very difficult (if not impossible?) for broad claims, such as "good for the environment".  Equally even narrower claims, such as Virgin Atlantic's "100% sustainable aviation fuel" need very carefully handling to avoid the suggestion that a wider sustainability claim is being made.

Autumn 2024