Greenwashing enforcement in the EU: lessons from recent cases
A landscape view of the cases that already shape EmpCo enforcement: aviation offsetting (KLM), oil-major net zero (TotalEnergies), fashion (H&M, Decathlon, SHEIN), finance (DWS) and the German BGH klimaneutral ruling.
EmpCo applies since 27 September 2026, but the enforcement pattern it codifies is already live. Every recent case turns on at least one of: vague generic terminology, offset-based neutrality, future ambitions without a credible plan, or whole-product claims based on a single component.
Aviation and offsetting — KLM (March 2024)
The Amsterdam District Court ruled on 20 March 2024 in Fossielvrij NL v KLMthat 15 of 19 statements in the "Fly Responsibly" campaign were misleading. Vague terminology, optimistic SAF claims and the framing of CO₂ offsetting as neutralising flight impact were all rejected. The reasoning maps directly onto EmpCo Annex I points 4a, 4b and 4c.
Oil majors — TotalEnergies (October 2025)
The Paris Judicial Tribunal ruled on 23 October 2025 against TotalEnergies, finding misleading the "carbon neutrality by 2050" ambition and its self-styling as "a major player in the energy transition". The company was ordered to cease the statements within a month under penalty of €10,000 per day, publish the judgment on its French homepage for 180 days, and pay €8,000 in moral damages to each NGO claimant — the first successful greenwashing judgment against an oil major in Europe under consumer law.
Fashion and retail
The Dutch ACM accepted commitments from H&M and Decathlon in September 2022 — withdrawal of "Conscious Choice" and "Ecodesign" labels, €500,000 and €400,000 donations, and two-year monitoring. The UK CMA closed its ASOS, Boohoo and Asda investigation in March 2024 with legally binding undertakings on accurate claims, supplier due diligence, training and reporting. Italy's AGCM fined SHEIN €1 millionin 2024; France's DGCCRF added a separate €1.098 millionAGEC penalty in July 2025 and a combined €40 million penalty for price and environmental commitment failings.
Financial services — DWS
The SEC fined DWS US$19 million in September 2023 for misleading ESG statements (and a further US$6 million for AML). In April 2025 the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office imposed a €25 million fine for negligent greenwashing between mid-2020 and January 2023. ESG positioning ("ESG leader", "integral to our DNA") without controls and substantiation creates regulatory risk on both sides of the Atlantic.
"Klimaneutral" — German BGH (June 2024)
The German Federal Court of Justice ruling of 27 June 2024 (I ZR 98/23)held that advertising a product as "klimaneutral" with a third-party logo is misleading unless the consumer is told in the ad itself whether neutrality is achieved by reduction or compensation. QR codes and footnotes do not suffice. The ruling pre-figures EmpCo's 4c prohibition with judicial force.
Adidas (March 2025)
The Nuremberg-Fürth ruling struck down Adidas's "climate neutrality by 2050" claim because there was no concrete substantiation plan attached — a direct preview of how EmpCo's Article 6(2)(d) future-claim test is now applied.
Citations: Fossielvrij NL v KLM (Amsterdam DC, 20 Mar 2024); BGH I ZR 98/23 (27 Jun 2024); TotalEnergies (Paris TJ, 23 Oct 2025); ACM commitments (H&M, Decathlon, 2022); CMA undertakings (ASOS, Boohoo, Asda, Mar 2024); AGCM/DGCCRF SHEIN; Frankfurt StA v DWS (Apr 2025); LG Nuremberg-Fürth (Mar 2025).