The Italian Antitrust authority said
Tuesday that it has fined three companies belonging to the
General Logistics Systems (GLS) group a total of eight million
euros for alleged Greenwashing by the parcel services provider.
"The Authority found that the "Climate Protect" environmental
sustainability initiative - which boosted the well-known group's
green image - was organised, funded and promoted in a
non-transparent manner, and lacked the rigour and diligence
demanded from highly polluting sectors such as logistics,
transport and parcel delivery," the competition watchdog said in
a statement regarding the fines on General Logistics Systems
B.V., General Logistics Systems Italy S.p.A. and General
Logistics Systems Enterprise S.r.l after a probe.
"The environmental statements made by the three companies on the
General Logistics Systems Italy S.p.A. website - within the
framework of the environmental sustainability program created by
General Logistics Systems B.V. - were found to be ambiguous
and/or not sufficiently clear, specific, accurate, clear-cut and
verifiable.
"Furthermore, subscribers to the General Logistics Systems
Enterprise services were forced to join the "Climate Protect"
program and pay for an unwanted carbon offset certificate with
respect to their deliveries.
"The amount of this contribution was determined without
verifying the costs actually incurred by them for the program.
"While top clients were exempted from paying the contribution,
all other customers were led to believe that the GLS companies
themselves would be contributing significantly to the program's
funding.
"The investigation revealed that subscribed customers and GLS
Italy's logistics partners were made to bear all the costs
connected to the "Climate Protect" program.
"In addition, it found that the GLS Group companies cashed in
more than what they paid to implement the program.
"Moreover, their communications to subscribed customers and
partner companies, as well as the carbon offset certificates
issued to customers and enterprises for their deliveries were
found to be misleading, ambiguous and/or false".
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