According to RTinfo, the French judiciary has convicted TotalEnergies for misleading environmental communications, marking the first global ruling acknowledging that a major oil and gas company has “greenwashed” its image.
The Paris judicial court found that the company and its electricity and gas subsidiary had disseminated environmental claims on their commercial site totalenergies.fr that could influence consumer purchasing behavior. The group did not clarify that it was using its own carbon neutrality scenario while continuing to increase its investments in oil and gas.
“By aiming for carbon neutrality as defined in the Paris Agreement, the group led consumers to believe it was adhering to scientific recommendations aligned with that agreement,” the court’s statement noted.
This decision represents a significant milestone in case law regarding greenwashing, according to the NGO ClientEarth, which was a participant in the case alongside Greenpeace France, Friends of the Earth France, and Notre Affaire à Tous, who brought the matter to civil court in 2022.
While the conviction focused on commercial advertisements related to the sale of electricity and gas, the court rejected requests concerning TotalEnergies’ institutional communications, stating these fall under a different legal framework. The court also did not uphold accusations related to fossil gas and biofuels.
The group immediately downplayed the ruling’s implications, reminding that it “only concerns its communication to customers” and that it “is not prohibited from discussing carbon neutrality in its institutional communications.” In a statement, TotalEnergies SE acknowledged the ruling while emphasizing that “the majority of claims made against it were dismissed.”