The use of vague and unsubstantiated claims such as “environmentally friendly” and “climate friendly,” “which could mislead consumers as to their real meaning and environmental impact,” asserting that Flixbus is “the most environmentally friendly means of transport,” without the necessary comparisons and justifications, or advertising the environmental benefits of the “Flixtrain,” even though this train is not available in Belgium. For all these reasons, the coach transport company Flixbus has been fined by the German courts for making misleading environmental claims on its Belgian website, the Federal Public Service (FPS) Economy announced on Friday 7 March.

The company, which operates direct routes from Luxembourg to a number of European cities including Berlin, Brussels and Frankfurt, failed to comply voluntarily, and the Belgian economic inspectorate asked its German counterparts to intervene. Flixbus, a brand of the German company Flix, was therefore guilty of various forms of greenwashing.

A legal precedent

This inspection was part of a European “sweep” operation. This is a series of checks carried out simultaneously by different authorities. These checks focus on detecting online infringements of European consumer law in a particular sector or on a particular subject, explains the FPS Economy in a press release. Flixbus was initially given the opportunity to voluntarily adapt its practices, but failed to do so. At the request of the economic inspectorate, the German Umweltbundesamt initiated legal proceedings.

After several appeals, the German Federal Court of Justice ruled definitively against Flixbus on 20 February. This means that the company is now obliged to remove misleading environmental claims from its Belgian website. “This is an important victory in the fight against greenwashing (...) It is now written in black and white that such misleading environmental claims are unacceptable. The ruling also sets a legal precedent that will help consumer authorities to take action against companies that use misleading environmental claims,” commented Etienne Mignolet, spokesman for the FPS Economy.

Although Flixbus has already made a number of adjustments in the course of the procedure, such as abandoning the CO2 emissions offsetting model, its Belgian website still contains ambiguous environmental claims. Flixbus will now have to amend these to bring them into line with the legislation.

This article was originally published in .