Delta Air Lines should pay damages to customers for misrepresenting itself as a carbon-neutral airline in marketing campaigns and advertisements that encouraged consumers to pay higher prices, a class-action lawsuit says.
Delta has sought to achieve carbon neutrality at least in part via purchases in the carbon-offset market. Buyers in that market receive carbon credit, or the right to emit more carbon, if they invest in green programs such as anti-deforestation or helping people buy low-emission cook stoves.
But the offset market is replete with inaccurate accounting and exaggerations, according to the lawsuit, brought Tuesday by California resident Mayanna Berrin. This means Delta has not been carbon-neutral since it first promised to become so in March 2020, her attorneys wrote in a complaint. “Nearly all offsets issued by the voluntary carbon offset market overpromise and underdeliver on their total carbon impact,” they wrote, citing studies and reports.
“Consumers can’t make informed eco-friendly choices if companies are misleading them,” attorney Jonathan Haderlein said.
“I felt comfortable paying more because I was neutralizing when I needed to travel for work or to see my family,” Berrin told the Associated Press. Berrin said she was frustrated after she started having doubts about Delta’s offsets.
Berrin could not be reached for comment, but her attorneys described her as in her late 20s and a writer at Nickelodeon.
Delta disputed the claims. The company is seeking to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, Delta said in a statement, and since March 31, 2022, “has fully transitioned its focus away from carbon offsets toward decarbonization of our operations,” by investing in sustainable aviation fuel and more fuel-efficient aircraft.
In 2020, Delta pledged to invest $1 billion over 10 years to reduce its carbon footprint, but it missed its target in 2021, The Washington Post reported. The airline