A new greenwashing complaint was filed with the Advertising Code Committee (the Committee) in the Netherlands this week. The Committee deals with violations of the Dutch Advertising Code (DAC). Part of the DAC is the Dutch Sustainability Claims Code (SCC). The complainants are a coalition of three organisations: Fossielvrij NL, Reclamejagers, and Advocates for the Future.
The complaint targets a marketing campaign employed earlier this year by MSC Cruises, which is part of global shipping giant MSC Group. MSC Cruises itself claims that it is one of the biggest and most rapidly growing cruise providers in the world. If the Committee determines that there has been a violation of the DAC, it may recommend MSC Cruises to discontinue the use of the advertisements in their current form.
The Greenwashing Complaint Against MSC Cruises
The complaint has identified seven different forms of advertising that allegedly violate the DAC. All advertisements are part of MSC Cruises’ ‘For a greater beauty’ campaign, which heavily features claims of sustainability and environmentally friendliness. MSC Cruises claims one of its newest cruise ships, the MSC Euribia, to be the greenest ship in its fleet.
The MSC Euribia has a dual-fuel engine, which means it can run on either traditional fossil fuels or on liquified natural gas (LNG). Yet, the use of LNG as shipping fuel has a devastating impact on our climate. This is due to the use of LNG leading to high methane emissions, of which the climate impact is more than 80 times greater than carbon dioxide emissions (if measured over a 20-year period). During the combustion of LNG, unburned methane is released into the atmosphere; this is called methane slip. The actual impact of the use of LNG as a marine fuel remains a topic of much research. However, a study from 2020 concludes that conventional marine fuels may actually be better for the environment than use of LNG as a marine fuel since LNG will only increase greenhouse gas emissions.
Yet, contrary to this current scientific consensus, MSC Cruises is marketing the use of LNG as marine fuel as “innovative”, “environmentally friendly”, “clean(er)”, and more misleading references. Moreover, MSC Cruises holds that the use of LNG is an important stepping-stone in their journey to become net zero in 2050. For a shipping giant to truly become net zero, it would require the large-scale use of sustainable LNG alternatives, such as either bio-LNG or synthetic LNG. Neither of these fuels is currently available at scale. Therefore, claiming the use of non-sustainable LNG to be crucial in a journey towards net zero is misleading.
As concluded in the complaint, this marketing strategy employed by MSC Cruises misleads consumers, because it incorrectly creates the impression that (i) cruising can be sustainable; (ii) the use of LNG is more sustainable than conventional fuels; (iii) the use of LNG as a marine fuel leads to a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions; (iv) MSC Cruises is actively committed to protect the planet and the seas, whereas cruises continue to be devastating for our planet and ecosystems; and (v) the use of LNG in cruise ships helps MSC Cruises in its journey towards net zero by 2050.
Violations of the DAC and SCC
Under Article 3.1 of the SCC, sustainability claims in advertising are required to be “clear, specific, correct, and unambiguous”. The claims may not mislead the “average consumer” to make a decision the consumer would not have made without the misleading claims. The complainants allege that the advertisements used by MSC Cruises are indeed misleading and therefore in violation of Article 3.1. Moreover, it is claimed that the advertisements are in violation of Article 3.2, which holds that “sustainability claims may not provide an overly positive image of results achieved or to be achieved in the area of sustainability”. The advertisements allegedly also violate Article 4 of the SCC, which declares that “all sustainability claims need to be verifiably correct”. As is argued by the complainants, several of MSC Cruises’ claims include incorrect information. Finally, under Article 7 SCC, comparisons made in sustainability claims need to be sufficiently clear. In MSC Cruises’ advertisements, it is arguably not clear on what basis LNG is compared to traditional fuels.
In addition to violations of the SCC, the complainants argue that there are also outright violations of the DAC. This includes a violation of Article 2 DAC, which requires all advertisements to be legal and ethical. As per Article 3 DAC, advertisements may not be contrary to public interest. The complainants argue that the greenwashing inherent to MSC Cruises is contrary to public interest due to the devastating impact of cruises on our environment.
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