In a major setback for corporate climate pledges a German court has ordered Adidas to stop advertising its ambition to become “climate neutral by 2050” ruling that the sportswear giant misled consumers with vague and unsupported claims.
On March 25, 2025, the Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court declared Adidas guilty of greenwashing term used for deceptive marketing that overstates environmental efforts. The court found that the company’s claim lacked sufficient explanation and failed to disclose whether it would rely on carbon offsets to meet its goal.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed in November 2024 by Environmental Action Germany (Deutsche Umwelthilfe or DUH), which challenged Adidas’ promotional statements as misleading. DUH welcomed the verdict, calling it a critical step toward accountability in corporate climate communication.
DUH Federal Director Jürgen Resch says “Adidas’ defeat in court underlines the importance of clear and transparent promises for the future & we need clear legal standards, especially at a time when the climate crisis is escalating and vague environmental promises are increasingly being used to attract consumers.”
The court specifically took issue with the company’s website claim: “We will be climate neutral by 2050: Adidas is committed to a number of ambitious goals that will pave the way to climate neutrality along our entire value chain in 2050.”
Judges ruled that the term “climate neutral” is ambiguous and often misunderstood to mean a company has zero emissions. The court stressed that due to the influence such claims can have on consumer decisions, strict standards must apply particularly when companies refer to long-term goals that remain undefined or unverifiable.
Adidas, headquartered in Germany, has said it is committed to reducing its operational carbon footprint and driving innovation to address climate change. It also has climate targets validated by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which supports corporations in setting emissions reduction goals aligned with scientific evidence.
However, DUH argued that such ambitions must be communicated with precision, not vague pledges. The group has also won a similar greenwashing case against German airline Lufthansa. Just days earlier on March 21, 2025 Cologne Regional Court barred Lufthansa from advertising that customers could “offset CO₂ emissions by contributing to climate protection projects.” The court found the claim misleading and unsupported, violating German advertising law.
Both the Adidas and Lufthansa rulings are not yet final, and the companies retain the right to appeal.
The wave of litigation highlights growing concerns over misleading environmental claims. A 2020 European Commission study found that over half of so-called green claims by companies were vague, misleading, or unfounded. Additionally, nearly 40 percent were presented without any supporting evidence.
A consumer survey by North Rhine-Westphalia’s consumer protection centre found that terms like “climate neutral” confuse more than they clarify. Most shoppers do not fully understand what the label means or how companies achieve such neutrality.
As sustainability becomes a central theme in branding and business strategy, the pressure is mounting for companies to not only act but communicate responsibly and transparently. This latest ruling signals that courts are increasingly ready to hold them to that standard.