ExxonMobil Being Sued For "False And Deceptive Advertising" Over Its Greenwashing Campaign

[hatrack]

ExxonMobil is facing yet another lawsuit challenging the corporation’s allegedly deceptive behavior related to climate change. The latest suit, filed May 15 in the D.C. Superior Court, claims the oil major is misleading consumers with “false and deceptive” advertising about its investments in “clean” fuels and technology. The Washington, D.C.-based environmental nonprofit Beyond Pesticides alleges that Exxon’s deceptive marketing and advertising violates the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act. According to the organization, Exxon portrays itself as an environmentally friendly company in ads without revealing the true extent of its business that remains overwhelmingly invested in exploiting fossil fuels to the detriment of the environment and the climate.

“ExxonMobil’s advertising and marketing mislead the public by presenting ExxonMobil’s clean energy activities as a significant proportion of its overall business,” the complaint states. “In contrast to ExxonMobil’s representations, its investments and activities in clean energy constitute only a very small percentage of its total business, the majority of which continues to be based in traditional fossil fuels and in petrochemicals, including those used in environmentally harmful pesticides.”

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Exxon and Shell, as part owners of a Dutch petroleum company, have already faced censure in the Netherlands for advertising natural gas as climate friendly. The Dutch Advertising Code Authority previously ordered Shell to withdraw a misleading ad claiming the company’s greenhouse gas emissions were being recycled and used to grow flowers in greenhouses. Major oil companies have been reprimanded for misleading greenwashing advertising elsewhere in Europe as well.

In December last year, the UK-based environmental law organization ClientEarth filed a legal complaint against BP over the company’s recent ad campaigns, claiming the ads misled consumers over BP’s investments in and commitment to clean energy. That was the first known complaint filed with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for deceptive advertising by a fossil fuel company. Earlier this year, as part of the company’s net zero announcement, BP withdrew one of the ad campaigns, which was targeted in the complaint and which represented the oil major's first global marketing blitz since before the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.

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https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/05/20/exxon-sued-misleading-advertising-beyond-pesticides

[Dustlawyer]

1. In our litigation with BP we found documents showing they had spent $100 millon

on their green ad campaign touting their research and efforts to go green. Problem was they only had spent $5 million on the actual projects combined. This was in the early 2000’s.