The Nordic consumer authorities have issued a joint statement on certain climate claims used in marketing. Many companies make claims that describe their products and services as, for example, ‘climate neutral’, ‘climate compensated’ or ‘net-zero’.
This view is based on a ruling made by the Swedish Patent and Market Court in 2023. The Court prohibited Arla Foods AB from using the claim ‘net-zero climate impact’ and similar misleading claims that gave consumers the impression that the product had no climate impact or that the impact was fully compensated, even though this was not the case.
According to Nordic consumer authorities, it is important for companies to describe concrete measures, such as carbon sequestration, rather than marketing their products and services with general claims about climate compensation that most companies have difficulty proving.
In Finland, the Finnish Consumer Ombudsman has intervened several times in unlawful environmental marketing and demanded changes to environmental claims made by Finnair, Marimekko and Stockmann, Froneri Finland, Vattenfall and Fortum.
Nordic statement on climate compensation claims in marketing