2024-04-30 18:14:22
The companies are suspected of luring their customers by using “climate projects” or other “sustainable fuels”.
The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it had ordered twenty airlines to explain their “potentially misleading” commercial practices regarding supposed compensation for their CO2 emissions within thirty days. The companies involved have not been named. In a letter sent to each of them, they are asked to “bring their practices into line with EU consumer protection legislation within 30 days,” the Commission said in a press release.
The companies are suspected of luring their customers by using “climate projects” or other “sustainable fuels”. It was a matter for the company to propose that additional fees – added to the ticket price – be paid to compensate for the carbon footprint of flying. They must now explain the “potentially misleading ecological claims”.
Complaint dating back to last June
The European executive says that the European Bureau for Consumers (BEUC) informed him of this matter, which led to a series of administrations in several Member States carrying out investigations. In France, UFC-Que Choisir welcomed the action of the Commission, noting that the airlines’ practices were “playing with passengers” and “distracted them from real consideration of their travel route”.
In Belgium, the consumer protection organization Testachats pointed out that the complaint from BEUC targeting these “green cleaning” practices dates back to June 2023. Asserting, as some companies have done, that we can reduce CO2 emissions “compensate” or “neutralize” flight. factually incorrect”, and for consumer organizations, “these allegations are unfair commercial practices”, Testachats added in a press release.
Insufficient evidence on the reliability of flight CO2 emission calculators
Among other practices cited, the Commission states that the term ‘sustainable aviation fuels’ (CAD) would be used without clearly justifying the impact of these fuels on the environment”, or that a “calculator” would be offered to the traveler to quantify the CO2 emissions of a particular flight. This “does not provide sufficient scientific evidence for the reliability of this calculation”, said the Association of Airlines for Europe (A4E), which represents the voice of the major companies in Brussels. he was “particularly concerned” that the environmental impact of so-called sustainable fuels must be justified, although these new standards are accordingly supported by the European Union.
“Scientific data prove that it is a more sustainable alternative to conventional kerosene,” said A4E, which notably represents Air France-KLM, Iberia, British Airways, EasyJet, Ryanair and the TAP group.
The organization expressed its commitment to ongoing discussions with the EU regarding the development of a “common methodology” to advance the sector’s ecological transition efforts. The Commission indicated that, after receiving the answers from the companies that were asked to explain themselves, it would bring them together around the same table as consumer organizations to discuss the proposed solutions.
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