Deutsche Umwelthilfe v. Eurowings GmbH

The lawsuit was directed against the airline company Eurowings. The company was accused of making misleading advertising claims that suggest products, companies, or services are "climate neutral." It concerned the following statements (in German): (1) "Travel CO2-neutral. Together we make flying more sustainable: offset CO2 emissions and take off." (2) "Eurowings offers two ways to support sustainable travel. Together with our partner myclimate, we already offer our customers the possibility to offset the CO2 emissions of their flight through a voluntary contribution during the booking process via compensaid." The Cologne Regional Court prohibited the airline from advertising flights, whose emissions are offset with a few euros, as "CO2-neutral" in the form that occurred at the time of the lawsuit. The court concluded that the forest protection projects used for the alleged compensation are not suitable for achieving actual compensation, especially due to their short duration.