German court rules Apple Watch not a 'CO2-neutral product' - report

[Apple Reports Quarterly Earnings]
Justin Sullivan

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/AAPL]) can no longer advertise the Apple Watch as a "CO2-neutral product" in Germany after a court ruling that sided with environmentalists in finding that the company had misled consumers, Reuters reported.

Apple had promoted the product online as "our first CO2-neutral product", a claim found by a panel of judges to be unfounded and in breach of German competition law, the report added [https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/apple-watch-not-co2-neutral-product-german-court-finds-2025-08-26/], citing a statement from a regional court in Frankfurt.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.

The U.S. tech giant had based its claim of carbon neutrality on a project it operates in Paraguay to offset emissions by planting eucalyptus trees on leased land.

The Frankfurt court noted that leases for 75% of the project area were not secured beyond 2029 and that Apple could not guarantee these contracts would be extended.

"There is no secure future for the continuation of the forest project," said the statement.

Environmentalist group Deutsche Umwelthilfe, or DUH, had brought the case against Apple.

"The alleged CO2 storage in the commercial eucalyptus plantations is limited to only a few years, the contractual safeguards for the future are insufficient, and the ecological integrity of the monoculture areas is not guaranteed," said [https://www.duh.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/pressemitteilung/erfolgreiche-klimaklage-der-deutschen-umwelthilfe-apple-darf-seine-apple-watch-nicht-mehr-wie-bishe/] DUH Federal Director Jürgen Resch, according to a Google-translated press release.

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