{"id":101616,"date":"2025-08-29T20:28:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T20:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/101616\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T20:28:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T20:28:12","slug":"apple-watch-not-a-co2-neutral-product-german-court-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/101616\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Watch not a &#8216;CO2-neutral product,&#8217; German court finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">By Rachel More<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">BERLIN (Reuters) &#8211;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/organizations\/apple\/\" data-ylk=\"slk:Apple;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Apple<\/a> can no longer advertise its Apple Watch as a &#8220;CO2-neutral product&#8221; in Germany, following a court ruling on Tuesday that upheld a complaint from environmentalists, finding that the U.S. tech company had misled consumers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">Apple had promoted the device online as &#8220;our first CO2-neutral product,&#8221; 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">An Apple spokesperson said the court ruling &#8220;broadly upheld our rigorous approach to carbon neutrality&#8221; and declined to comment on whether the company would appeal Tuesday&#8217;s ruling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">In June, Apple had said the German lawsuit threatens &#8220;to discourage the kind of credible corporate climate action the world needs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">Still, a spokesperson referred on Tuesday to a report that Apple will phase out the &#8216;carbon neutral&#8217; 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">Apple based its claim of carbon neutrality on a project it operates in Paraguay to offset emissions by planting eucalyptus trees on leased land.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">The eucalyptus plantations have been criticised by ecologists, who claim that such monocultures harm biodiversity and require high water usage, earning them the nickname &#8216;green deserts.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">&#8220;There is no secure future for the continuation of the forest project,&#8221; the statement said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">Alongside Apple, Meta and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/organizations\/microsoft\/\" data-ylk=\"slk:Microsoft;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft<\/a> have also invested in similar projects in Latin America in return for carbon credits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">Environmentalist group Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), which brought the case against Apple, hailed the ruling as a success against &#8220;greenwashing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">&#8220;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,&#8221; DUH head Juergen Resch said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1090901\">(Reporting by Rachel More, Editing by Friederike Heine and Louise Heavens)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Rachel More BERLIN (Reuters) &#8211;Apple can no longer advertise its Apple Watch as a &#8220;CO2-neutral product&#8221; 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