Iberdrola and Repsol face each other in court in the first trial for ‘greenwashing’ in the Spanish state

Iberdrola and Repsol will meet on Thursday in the Commercial Court No. 2 of Santander (Cantabria) in the lawsuit filed by the electricity company against the oil company for “unfair competition” and “misleading advertising”, in which first test between companies greenwashing (ecopostureo) of the Spanish state.

The legal process began with a lawsuit filed by Iberdrola last February. In it, Ignacio Sánchez Galán’s company accused Repsol of promoting supposedly sustainable initiatives, “when its multi-product offering seeks to promote the use of fuels”, and also of “focusing on sustainability, while it is a small part of its current activities. ” (most of its activity is focused on oil).

The energy company set up three advertising campaigns and a dozen references on Repsol’s corporate website, which it believes is the case misleading in light of the company’s ‘environmental commitments’, and therefore represent unfair competition for companies that are truly green. Given all this, Iberdrola asks that Repsol be condemned and that it be forced to withdraw all its campaigns and announce a correction through the same media.

For his part, Repsol defends its strategy with regard to its ambition in the energy transition. For the oil company’s CEO, Josu Jon Imaz, the lawsuit exposed the electricity company’s “nervousness” and sought to “limit the energy company’s growth in the electricity sector.”

Unpublished lawsuit in the state

The trial will take place in the Cantabrian capital, as that is where Repsol has its electricity and gas marketing headquarters. The sentence may be known between end of this year or early 2025.

Legally speaking, the claim is pioneersince the ‘greenwashing As such, it is not currently something characterized in the Spanish legal system.

In other countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany or Italy, measures have already been taken against companies, especially oil companies, for committing abuses. greenwashing. Within the European Union, a European directive introducing specific rules to tackle ecopostureo was adopted in February, although it has not yet been transposed by the Spanish state.