Introduction
In the Netherlands, the ACC (in Dutch Reclame Code Commissie) handles complaints from consumers and businesses on alleged misleading advertisements. Consumers and businesses are increasingly reaching out to the ACC with complaints about sustainability advertising: the number of complaints mentioning the word "sustainable" has increased sharply over the past five years.2 A misleading sustainability claim may already exist if absolute terms such as "environmentally friendly", "green", "good for the environment" and "clean" are used in advertisements without sufficient substantiation. Moreover, the number of complaints directed at sustainability claims is only expected to increase. This increase may also spill over to proceedings in courts. Court proceedings, where a largely similar legal framework applies, may have significant legal consequences.
The ACC recently published two rulings in which it held that several advertisements from Greenpeace and dairy producer Weerribben Zuivel violated the Dutch Advertising Code (DAC). In both cases, the complaints alleged that the advertisements contained misleading sustainability claims.
In this blog we discuss these two rulings. A general article of the DAC, the powers of the ACC and the Sustainability Advertising Code, which is tailor-made for sustainability claims, can be found here.
Click here to read the full alert.
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Read in Dutch.
1 A Dutch translation of this article can be found here.
2 A search on the ACC's website on the word "sustainable" yields 13 rulings for 2019. In 2024, up until the date of this blog, the same search yields 34 rulings.
