Description
TUI Netherlands' 'Fair Travel' campaign has been found to be misleading on five counts in June 2023. The Advertising Code Committee came up with this verdict this week following a complaint filed by Eric Stam, a teacher at an aviation school, and 25 supporters, including Fossil Free NL and Advertising Fossil Free.
The complaint focused on five parts of the 'Fair Travel' campaign. In the campaign, TUI claimed to offer "a 'greener alternative for your holiday'" for a fee of 2 euros. TUI itself doubled that to 4 euros. And for those 4 euros, TUI claims to make a serious contribution to nine initiatives that would make travel more sustainable. TUI did so by investing in various initiatives at the destination and by investing in 'more sustainable' aviation fuels. TUI said that a more sustainable trip does not have to be a more expensive trip at all.
The Advertising Code Committee now rules that all the contested statements are in breach of Article 3.1 of the Sustainability Advertising Code (CDR), which states that sustainability claims may not contain statements that could mislead an average consumer and incite him to decide on a transaction he would otherwise not have taken. One claim by TUI about investments in sustainable aviation fuels also violates Article 4 CDR, which states that the veracity of a sustainability claim must be made plausible. TUI could not substantiate the claims about more sustainable aviation fuels.
