The federal consumer watchdog’s decision yesterday to commenced proceedings against the Australian Gas Network (AGN) for making allegedly false or misleading statements demonstrates the power of informing regulators about corporate misbehaviour.  

EDO wrote to the regulator, the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC), on behalf of its client, the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), in late 2022, asking the regulator to investigate claims made in an AGN advertising campaign titled “Love Gas”. 

The advertisements, which ran on free-to-air television and online, claimed household gas would be “renewable” within a generation. Our client maintained that AGN did not have reasonable grounds for making that claim because there were significant technical and economic barriers to distributing “renewable” gas to households, among other arguments.  

Yesterday (June 26), the ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb announced that as a result of the ACF complaint and complaints by others, and following its own investigations, it had launched proceedings in the Federal Court. 

“We have now seen regulators take action against several companies for greenwashing under federal consumer and corporations’ law, which is a very welcome trend,” said EDO Managing Lawyers (Corporate and Commercial) Kirsty Ruddock. 

“When breaches are proven, the penalties can be substantial and the damage to corporate reputations is significant. We applaud the ACCC for taking our client’s concerns all the way to the Federal Court. 

“Greenwashing is a pernicious practice that harms consumers and delays real action on climate change.” 

While many complaints are dealt with by Ad Standards under their Code of Conduct or by regulators through penalty notices or enforceable undertakings to remedy the claims, the more serious matters may end up before the courts and some have resulted in substantial fines.  

EDO last year lodged a complaint with the advertising standards body, Ad Standards, against AGN on behalf of our client, Comms Declare. The Ad Standards Community Panel found AGN broke three sections of the Environmental Claims Code, saying: “…the Environmental Claims in the advertisement were not substantiated and verifiable and did not include sufficient detail to allow evaluation of the claim.” 

EDO is currently representing another client, the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR), which is alleging gas giant Santos Ltd breached the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and the Australian Consumer Law by engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct relating to representations contained in its 2020 Annual Report. Hearings into that matter concluded in October 2024 and a decision is pending. [Link]

The Federal Court has over the past year or so fined corporations more than $40 million for greenwashing breaches. In March this year, the court fined Active Super $10.5 million and April fined Clorox $8.5million. Last year, the courts fined Mercer Super $11.3 million and Vanguard Investments Australia $12.9 million. [Link] 

Read more about EDO’s work combating corporate greenwashing.  

Media contact: James Tremain | 0419 272 254