header-logo header-logo

NLJ this week: Risky times for companies accused of greenwashing

15 November 2024
Issue: 8094 / Categories: Legal News , Environment , Climate change litigation
printer mail-detail
196799
Be on guard against ‘greenwashing’ as tough regulations are now in place. Moreover, the latest guidance available suggests a low threshold for culpability. In this week’s NLJ, Paige Coulter, associate at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan UK, with input from Julianne Hughes-Jennett, partner, sets out the risks involved and predicts a rise in litigation under the Companies Act 2006 and other legislation concerning allegations of greenwashing (publishing misleading information about the environmental or sustainability characteristics of a good, service or business).

Coulter and Hughes-Jennett write that guidance issued in September by the Competition and Markets ‘highlights in particular the risks of brevity in advertising’. 

They advise companies to avoid making any claims that could be viewed as overly broad, vague or ambiguous, writing: ‘From the regulator’s perspective, being vague can be tantamount to being misleading.’ 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Excello Law—five appointments

Excello Law—five appointments

Fee-share firm expands across key practice areas with senior appointments

Irwin Mitchell—Grace Morahan

Irwin Mitchell—Grace Morahan

International divorce team welcomes new hire

Switalskis—14 trainee solicitors

Switalskis—14 trainee solicitors

Firm welcomes largest training cohort in its history

NEWS
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
back-to-top-scroll