“The environmental sustainability initiative ‘Climate Protect‘, with which GLS has built its green image, was organized, financed and communicated without the transparency, rigor and diligence required of operators in a highly polluting sector, such as the shipping, transport and delivery of goods”. For this reason, the Competition and Market Authority has issued a sanction against the group, sentencing it to pay 8 million euros.
Environmental declarations “not clear, specific, accurate and verifiable”
At the heart of the Authority’s measure is precisely the environmental sustainability program implemented by GLS “in violation of the rules for the protection of consumers and micro-enterprises”, provided for by Articles 20, 21, 22 and 26, letter f) of the Consumer Code. Both the “parent” company General Logistics Systems B.V., head of the GLS Group in Europe, and General Logistics Systems Italy S.p.A. and General Logistics Systems Enterprise S.r.l. were jointly sentenced to pay the maxi-fine.
“Taking into account that the growing awareness of environmental issues increasingly influences the purchasing behavior and reputation of companies compared to their competitors, it has been ascertained that, within the scope of the environmental sustainability program implemented by General Logistics Systems B.V., the three companies have used ambiguous environmental declarations and/or presented in a manner that is not sufficiently clear, specific, accurate, unequivocal and verifiable on the website of General Logistics Systems Italy S.p.A”.
Niente più “green”, “ecologico” o “sostenibile” su etichette e pubblicità
Gls has collected contributions greater than the costs
The Authority has in fact ascertained that customers subscribed to the services of General Logistics Systems Enterprise were required to join this program and pay a financial contribution in order to obtain a certificate, not requested, attesting to the offsetting of CO2 emissions relating to their respective shipments. This contribution was defined without prior verification of the costs attributable to the “Climate Protect” program, exempting large customers from payment and implying that the group companies themselves would have contributed significantly to its financing.
È invece risultato che le società del gruppo Gls ha riversato tutti gli oneri economici legati al programma sui propri clienti abbonati e sulle imprese di spedizioni affiliate alla rete di General Logistics Systems Italy. Per di più, hanno incassato contributi maggiori dei costi sostenuti per attuare il programma. Inoltre, le comunicazioni trasmesse ai clienti abbonati e alle imprese affiliate e le certificazioni sulle compensazioni delle emissioni di CO2 rilasciate a clienti e imprese per le proprie spedizioni sono risultate ingannevoli, ambigue e/o non veritiere.
Since the Antitrust Authority made its decision public, the pages dedicated to the “Climate Protect” program on the Gls website have been offline.
