Eurowings advertising on carbon offsetting misleading, court rules

German airline Eurowings misled customers by claiming flights will become "CO2-neutral" through carbon offsetting, a court in Düsseldorf ruled on Friday.

The airline had stated in its online booking process that customers could offset their flight's carbon footprint with a €9 (about $10) contribution "to high-quality climate protection projects".

In the court's view, the advertising, which included the slogan "The future of CO2-neutral flying is just a click away," led consumers to believe that they were travelling in a climate-neutral manner.

The court argued that flying releases further climate-damaging emissions apart from CO2, which many consumers are unaware of.

Eurowings said it regretted the ruling and that it would carefully examine the reasoning.

The judges ruled that the terms "CO2-neutral" and "climate-neutral" are used synonymously in everyday language, which might lead consumers to understand the advertisement to mean that all climate-damaging emissions from the booked flight – not just CO2 emissions – would be offset.

The lawsuit, which was brought by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv), was initially rejected by a regional court in Cologne but was now partially upheld by the higher court in Dusseldorf.