Apple has been barred from promoting its Apple Watch as a “CO2-neutral product” in Germany, after a German court ruled in favour of environmentalists who argued the claim was misleading to consumers.
Apple had promoted the device online as “our first CO2-neutral product,” a claim found by a panel of judges to be unfounded and in violation of German competition law, according to a statement from a regional court in Frankfurt.
Apple’s Climate Strategy
An Apple spokesperson said the court ruling “broadly upheld our rigorous approach to carbon neutrality” and declined to comment on whether the company would appeal Tuesday’s ruling.
In June, Apple had said the German lawsuit threatens “to discourage the kind of credible corporate climate action the world needs.”
Still, a spokesperson referred on Tuesday to a report that Apple will phase out the ‘carbon neutral’ label it uses for Apple Watches in order to comply with EU legislation coming into force in September 2026 restricting the use of such terms.
Apple based its claim of carbon neutrality on a project it operates in Paraguay to offset emissions by planting eucalyptus trees on leased land.
Project Under Scrutiny
The eucalyptus plantations have been criticised, by ecologists, who claim that such monocultures harm biodiversity and require high water usage, earning them the nickname ‘green deserts.’
However, the Frankfurt court said that leases for 75% of the project area were not secured beyond 2029 and that the company could not guarantee these contracts would be extended.
“There is no secure future for the continuation of the forest project,” the statement said.
Alongside Apple, Meta and Microsoft have also invested in similar projects in Latin America in return for carbon credits.
Environmentalists React
Environmentalist group Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), which brought the case against Apple, hailed the ruling as a success against “greenwashing.”
“The supposed storage of CO2 in commercial eucalyptus plantations is limited to just a few years, the contractual guarantees for the future are not sufficient and the ecological integrity of monoculture areas is not guaranteed,” DUH head Juergen Resch said in a statement.
(With Inputs from Reuters)
