The Swiss Fairness Commission, an institution of the Swiss communications industry for the purpose of advertising self-regulation, approved five complaints against a sports events organizer regarding its advertising of carbon neutrality in relation to a specific sports event.
Under the Swiss Unfair Competition Act, when engaging in commercial communication, factual statements must be accurate and must not contain misleading information. Consequently, when making absolute statements, such as claiming carbon neutrality before and during a sports event, the advertiser must be able to substantiate these claims. Adhering to the ICC Marketing and Advertising Code (Chapter 3: Environmental Claims in Marketing Communication), the Swiss Fairness Commission applied strict standards to the substantiation of the sports events organizer's environmental claims. In particular, the Swiss Fairness Commission was of the opinion that a company may not advertise carbon neutrality if there are no definitive and generally accepted methods for measuring the same.
In its decision, the Swiss Fairness Commission recommends to refrain from advertising the climate and carbon neutrality of an event unless at the time of the communication (i) the comprehensive calculation of all CO2 emissions caused by the respective event can be fully substantiated – such calculations being carried out according to generally accepted methods and (ii) evidence of the complete compensation of these CO2 emissions can be provided.
It is, though, important to note that decisions of the Swiss Fairness Commission are only recommendations. They are not legally enforceable and Swiss courts are not bound by them.
