Alex Padfield, director of law firm Hextalls, told Abta’s Travel Law seminar it was vital to get green claims right, especially claims suggesting a particular product or service is better for the environment.

“If you come out with green claims which aren’t true, you’re likely committing an unfair commercial practice,” he said at the seminar on Wednesday (10 May). “You’re causing the consumer to take an economic decision they may not otherwise have taken had you not made that claim.”

Padfield told delegates green claims, both implicit and explicit, need to be substantiated and consider the full life cycle of the product in order to be accepted by regulators such as the Competition and Markets Authority.

“Before you make your claim, you should ask yourself: Is it true? Do I live up to the point I’m making? Am I using terms that are generally understood by consumers?,” he added. 

Vague terms, said Padfield, such as “green” and “sustainable” should be avoided as they are much more likely to be considered misleading by authorities. 

Padfield warned "offsetting" was a particularly tricky term for businesses to use because they need to provide information about the specific schemes being use to offset the impact of travel. “Don’t leave stuff out, make sure consumers understand what you’re talking about,” he said.

Over the past few years, several travel giants such as Ryanair and Lufthansa have been punished for greenwashing. Budget carrier Ryanair was forced to remove several of its ads in 2020 after the Advertising Standards Authority ruled they were misleading as they claimed that Ryanair was Europe’s “low CO2 airline".

The same happened earlier this year to Lufthansa, whose ad was banned after it misled consumers over the airline’s CO2 emission reduction efforts.