In a significant development for the cruise industry, MSC Cruises has agreed to withdraw its advertisements promoting fossil liquified natural gas (LNG) as a ‘green’ fuel following a nine-month investigation by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The resolution comes after a complaint filed by environmental NGO Opportunity Green in March 2024, highlighting the legal risks associated with marketing fossil LNG as environmentally friendly.
The complaint centred on MSC Cruises’ global ad campaign, “For a greater beauty,” which launched in early 2024 across more than 30 countries. The campaign encouraged consumers to cruise more consciously, claiming that MSC’s newest fleet of cruise ships, the MSC World Europa and the MSC Euribia, used “cleaner fuel”—specifically fossil LNG. The ads described the MSC World Europa as utilizing “clean, green technology,” a claim that Opportunity Green challenged as misleading.
Following the ASA’s investigation, MSC Cruises has agreed to remove the adverts in question and ensure that future environmental claims are clear and substantiated. This resolution serves as a stark warning to the cruise industry about the legal risks of marketing fossil LNG as a ‘green’ fuel.
Kirsty Mitchell, Legal Manager at Opportunity Green, commented on the decision:
“It’s high time the cruise industry is called out for its systemic misleading advertising of fossil LNG – a highly-damaging fossil fuel – as ‘green’. A strong body of evidence shows the detrimental impacts that fossil LNG has on our climate due to its high methane content, a potent greenhouse gas. Cruise companies are keen to focus on the carbon emissions savings or air pollution benefits linked to the use of fossil LNG, but this only tells part of the story. The reality is that the climate impacts of methane are over 80 times greater than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period – this is not a solution that is consistent with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C temperature goal.”
This is not the first instance where MSC Cruises has faced scrutiny over its marketing tactics. In October, the Dutch Advertising Code Committee found that the company’s advertisements misled consumers about the sustainability aspects of LNG and that it did not demonstrate that sufficient bio- and synthetic LNG would be available on a commercial scale to the company’s stated sustainability goals this goal. That decision came after a complaint filed by Advocates for the Future, FossielVrij NL, and Reclamejagers, argued that MSC Cruises’ advertisements were misleading and unfair.
Despite MSC Cruises agreeing to remove the adverts, other companies continue to advertise tickets for MSC cruises using similar claims. For example, Cruise1st.co.uk states that MSC cruise ships are “powered by LNG, [the] world’s cleanest marine fuel” and “uses new, green technologies.” Similarly, Cruise-circle.co.uk describes the MSC fleet as leading “the future of eco-friendly cruising,” and Cruisedirect.co.uk claims that LNG is “one of the world’s cleanest marine fuels, and featuring breakthrough green technologies.”
David Kay, Legal Director at Opportunity Green, added:
“MSC Cruises taking down its misleading fossil LNG claims is a great result for consumers and the environment, but it shouldn’t have taken a nine-month long regulatory investigation for MSC to do the right thing – we wrote to them privately in June 2023 about the legal risks of misleading consumers about fossil LNG and they carried on regardless.”
The Green Mobility Magazine’s Take:
“The informal resolution in the UK underscores the increasing importance of transparency and accuracy in environmental claims. Markedly, however, the UK MSC case is part of a broader trend whereby non-profit organisations continue to use regulatory authorities and tribunals to discourage and presumably punish transport operators who market fossil-based services in a way deemed inconsistent with climate objectives. Yet, in the absence of specific and clear rules on sustainability-related communications, one must wonder how, if at all, transport stakeholders should communicate their sustainability activities, projects, or objectives. I, for one, look forward to the EU’s Green Claim Directive, which should enter trialogues in the coming year or so, and sincerely hope that the UK will replace its hodgepodge approach, which currently includes myriad rules and industry-specific guidelines originating from the Financial Conduct Authority, the Competition and Markets Authority, and the Advertising Standards Authority, with a single set of clear and unambiguous regulations.” .– Thomas Jérémie Hayden-Lefebvre, Editor-in-Chief.
