UBA President Dirk Messner comments on the BGH ruling: “For the success of the transport transition, it is important that consumers can make their mobility decisions based on reliable information. The fact that the BGH fully upholds the decision of the lower court sends out a signal far beyond the transport industry when it comes to advertising with environmental claims. When companies advertise with sustainability promises, consumers must be able to rely on them being true. The recent decision also significantly strengthens cooperation between the EU Member States. The BGH is setting reasonable and practical standards for the work of consumer protection authorities. This is a good basis for our further work.”
The decision is the culmination of proceedings brought by the German Environment Agency against a German long-distance bus company. The origin of the legal dispute was that the competent Belgian authority had asked the UBA to take action against misleading environmental claims made by the company. As a result, the UBA had already banned the company in January 2023 from advertising to consumers in Belgium with the statement that long-distance buses are the most environmentally friendly means of transport.
The UBA also objected to the carbon offsetting that the company offered travellers as an additional service. Although the long-distance bus provider stated the price for this, it concealed the amount of CO2 emissions to be offset. After the Federal Court of Justice had already set strict requirements for advertising with labels such as “climate neutral” in 2024, the court's latest decision once again reinforces a clear line oriented towards the consumer's perspective.
The UBA's prohibition order was the first that the authority had issued in the context of internal EU cooperation between consumer protection authorities and that had been reviewed by the courts. The UBA was successful at first instance before the Dessau-Roßlau Regional Court; the Regional Court had authorised an appeal on points of law to the Federal Court of Justice due to the fundamental importance of the legal issues. With the decision of the First Civil Senate (case number I ZB 26/24), the BGH has now rejected all challenges to the proceedings and thus strengthened cross-border cooperation for the protection of European consumers. The decision is legally binding.
Further information
Advertising claims about environmental protection fall within the scope of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC. It states that general and imprecise environmental claims that do not refer to specific product characteristics are particularly misleading. Such claims conceal the fact that, as a rule, only individual aspects of a product have an environmental benefit.
With the Empowering Consumers Directive for the green transition, the European Union has further tightened the legal framework for advertising with environmental claims. Member states must transpose this directive into national law by March 2026.
The UBA is responsible for the cross-border enforcement of the collective interests of consumers. The authority's powers are derived directly from the European CPC Regulation 2017/2394 . Responsibility and procedure are regulated by national law (EU-VSchDG). However, the UBA has no powers to enforce individual consumer claims. Rather, its aim is to uncover and remedy abuses and violations by companies operating throughout Europe. All consumers benefit from this.
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