Why did BEUC file a complaint against ENGIE, EniPlenitude, Shell, and TotalEnergies?

BEUC filed a complaint against ENGIE, EniPlenitude, Shell, and TotalEnergies for their use of misleading green claims (greenwashing).

These misleading claims are illegal under EU consumer protection law. The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive bans false or misleading claims or omitting key information, whilst the Empowering Consumers in the Green Transition Directive bans generic green claims, as well as offsetting claims on products.

This greenwashing slows the energy transition, and keeps consumers locked into volatile fossil fuel prices. This as consumers are already struggling in yet another fossil fuel crisis.

It also allows companies to charge consumers a premium for ‘green’ products, costing consumers and unfairly disadvantaging companies making genuine sustainability efforts. For example, in the case of ENGIE it can vary from €0.75 to €15 p/month depending on the share of green gas included in its energy offer, plus a fee of €3 p/month. TotalEnergies' Bio Premium Thermogreen oil is €17 more expensive per 100 litres than the standard one, whereas the Danish Shell Eco Ultra Oil is nearly €7 more p/1,000 litres.

What is BEUC’s complaint based on?

BEUC's complaint is based on research that shows that these companies are using misleading green claims, which include:

1. Generic green claims and sustainability ‘halo’ claims that ENGIE, Shell, and TotalEnergies use to promote ‘green’ energy products that include fossil gas. The companies also highlight their ‘green’ image based on renewable energy investments, despite these being marginal to their overall business and not phasing out fossil fuels.  

2. Future environmental performance claims about goals such as net-zero emissions, despite continuing to invest heavily in fossil fuel expansion. Carbon-offsetting claims whereby companies (e.g. ENGIE) argue that emissions from gas are compensated by investing in climate-related projects elsewhere (e.g. forest plantations), which are factually incorrect. 

3. Misleading comparative claims (e.g. by TotalEnergies) that advertise fossil gas as green energy or having lower CO2 emissions than other fossil fuels. This omits to mention that fossil gas still emits a lot of CO2 when burned, and that its production and transportation results in methane leaks, a very potent greenhouse gas. Together, this can have a similar or greater climate impact than coal or oil.

The complaint was filed by BEUC in coordination with 12 of its members in 11 countries: CECU (Spain), CLCV and Que Choisir Ensemble (France), Consumentenbond (The Netherlands), Consumatori Italiani per l'Europa (Italy), DECO (Portugal), EKPIZO and KEPKA (Greece), Federacja Konsumentów (Poland), Forbrugerrådet Tænk (Denmark), Spoločnosť ochrany spotrebiteľov (Slovakia), Verein für Konsumenteninformation (Austria), and BEUC for Belgium.