A German court has told Apple to stop advertising its Watches as being carbon-neutral, ruling that this was misleading and could not fly under the country's competition law.

Apple has been [1]marketing its newest smartwatches as being carbon-neutral for nearly two years now, with an array of rationales. It claims that clean energy for manufacturing, along with greener materials and shipping, lop around three-quarters off the carbon emissions for each model of the Apple Watch. The remaining emissions are offset by the purchase of carbon credits, according to Apple.

Deutsche Umwelthilfe (well, DUH – that's the acronym), a prominent environmental group, begged to differ on that last point. It applied for an injunction in May and Tuesday's [2]ruling (in German), which will only be published in full later this week, led it to claim victory. The ruling means Apple can't advertise the Watch as a "CO2-neutral product" in Germany.

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"With our climate complaints against greenwashing by industrial and commercial business, we are ensuring that even multibillion-dollar concerns like Apple have to give consumers honest and understandable information about the actual environmental impacts of their products," said DUH chief Jürgen Resch in a [4]statement .

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The ruling revolved around the Paraguayan forestry program that Apple claimed was offsetting some of the Watch's production emissions. The project involves commercial eucalyptus plantations on leased land, where the leases for three-quarters of the land will run out in 2029 with no guarantee of renewal.

According to the court, consumers' expectations of carbon compensation schemes are shaped by the prominent [7]2015 Paris Agreement , which commits countries to achieving carbon neutrality by the second half of this century. It said consumers would therefore "assume" that the carbon-neutrality claims around the Apple Watch would mean neutrality was assured through 2050. That leaves a 21-year gap of uncertainty in this case.

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The [12]Verified Carbon Standard program , in which Apple is participating, has a "pooled buffer account" scheme to hedge against this sort of uncertainty. However, the German court was not impressed, saying it would only allow Apple to monitor the situation after the leases run out, which is a far cry from definitely being able to keep offsetting those emissions if the plantation gets cleared.

Environmentalist groups are not mad keen on commercial monoculture plantations as a solution for carbon storage, partly because they lack biodiversity, but also because they tend to require a lot of water and – particularly in the case of trees such as eucalyptus – they are highly vulnerable to forest fires. If the tree burns, all that carbon would be released back into the [13]atmosphere [PDF], or so the argument goes.

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Apple can still appeal the ruling to a higher German court, though it hasn't said whether it will. We've asked the tech giant for further comment.

Cupertino can at least celebrate winning one part of the case: DUH had earlier tried to [15]argue that Apple's "Carbon Neutral" logo would mislead people into thinking it was an official "seal of quality" granted by an external standards body, but the court decided that consumers would figure out it just refers to Apple's own standards. ®

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[1] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/09/apple-unveils-its-first-carbon-neutral-products/

[2] https://ordentliche-gerichtsbarkeit.hessen.de/presse/co2-neutrales-produkt

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aK4ufDSDfC_4SyVw9YSOowAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[4] https://www.duh.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/pressemitteilung/erfolgreiche-klimaklage-der-deutschen-umwelthilfe-apple-darf-seine-apple-watch-nicht-mehr-wie-bishe/

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aK4ufDSDfC_4SyVw9YSOowAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aK4ufDSDfC_4SyVw9YSOowAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[7] https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/14/apple_watch_revives_blood_oxygen/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/08/apple_coo_williams_retiring/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/26/christmas_walking/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/22/apple_watch_pfas_bands/

[12] https://verra.org/programs/verified-carbon-standard/

[13] https://en.milieudefensie.nl/news/factsheet-false-solutions_monoculture-plantations.pdf

[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aK4ufDSDfC_4SyVw9YSOowAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[15] https://www.duh.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/pressemitteilung/deutsche-umwelthilfe-klagt-gegen-technologiekonzern-apple-wegen-irrefuehrender-werbung-fuer-co2-neutr/

[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/