Compliance Radar
Who was sanctioned, and for what?
Fines, court rulings and incidents from Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa: 2,207 cases from 44 jurisdictions, each with an official source and checked against that source before publication. Filter by country, area of law and sector. Click a chart to drill down one level.
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When?
per year, by date of decision| Period | Cases | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | – |
| 2024 | 1 | – |
| 2025 | 2 | – |
| 2026 | 1 | €375,000 |
5 cases
5 Aug 2026 GmbH (im Urteil anonymisiert)Illegal dumping of construction waste: company must pay €375,000 forfeiture €375,000
The Oberlandesgericht (OLG, Higher Regional Court) Linz added a forfeiture of 375,000 EUR to the conviction of a limited company under the Verbandsverantwortlichkeitsgesetz (VbVG, Austrian Corporate Criminal Liability Act) for intentionally handling and moving waste in a way that endangered the environment; the suspended corporate fine of 30 daily rates of 500 EUR (15,000 EUR) imposed by the Landesgericht (Regional Court) Salzburg remained in place. From May 2021 to May 2024 and again from May 2025 to February 2026, contrary to the AWG 2002 (Waste Management Act) and partly to an official decision, the company had excavated soil, construction waste, asphalt and concrete rubble accepted for payment and deposited on a plot; removal costs were put at around 3.24 million EUR. Only the forfeiture of EUR 375,000 is recorded as the amount; the corporate fine of EUR 15,000 was conditionally suspended.
Anyone accepting and depositing waste without a permit risks not only a corporate fine but also forfeiture of the fees received for it, which can far exceed the fine.
Waste law and official conditions for excavated soil and construction waste
- Authority / court
- Oberlandesgericht Linz (Berufung gegen Urteil des Landesgerichts Salzburg vom 06.03.2026)
- Area of law
- Environment and sustainability · Waste and hazardous substances
- Legal basis
- § 181b Abs. 1 und 2 StGB; §§ 3, 4 Abs. 1 und 3, § 6 Abs. 1, § 14 Abs. 1 VbVG; § 20 Abs. 3 StGB; AWG 2002
- Action
- Disgorgement of profits
- Status of proceedings
- final
- Sector
- Other
- Culpability
- intentional
- Repeat case
- no
- Mitigating circumstances
- No previous convictions of the company; rather low environmental risk. Further circumstances taken into account by the court concern a natural person and are not reported here.
- Liability of senior managers
- Under the VbVG, the company's liability is linked to the conduct of its managing director.
- OLG Linz, 9 Bs 153/26b vom 05.08.2026 (RIS) Court decision
Checked against the official source on 2 Oct 2026 · Direct link
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4 Dec 2025 Eurowings GmbHDüsseldorf Higher Regional Court bans misleading Eurowings CO2 offsetting claims Order
On appeal by the Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (Federation of German Consumer Organisations), the Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court) prohibited Eurowings from advertising a €9 CO2 offset during online booking in a way that makes customers believe they travel climate-neutrally; it was not mentioned that other climate-damaging emissions are not offset. By contrast, the court did not consider the 'Sustainable Aviation Fuel' advertising misleading; it did not grant leave to appeal on points of law.
Anyone selling CO2 offsets must point out that only part of the climate impact is offset, even if each individual statement is correct.
CO2 offsetting and climate neutrality in customer communication
- Authority / court
- Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf, 20. Zivilsenat
- Area of law
- Environment and sustainability · Misleading environmental and sustainability claims
- Legal basis
- UWG (irreführende Werbung); Az. I-20 U 38/25
- Action
- Order
- Status of proceedings
- unknown
- Sector
- Transport, logistics and shipping
- Published
- 5 Dec 2025
Checked against the official source on 2 Oct 2026 · Direct link
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25 Mar 2025 Adidas (Sportartikelhersteller)Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court: Adidas may not claim 'climate neutral by 2050' without explanation Other
On an action by a consumer association, the Landgericht Nürnberg-Fürth (Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court) ordered Adidas to cease the former statement 'By 2050 we will be climate neutral' on its corporate website and to reimburse warning costs. The statement created the impression that the goal would be reached solely through the company's own emission reductions, although green electricity certificates were also to be used; a reference only in the linked annual report was not sufficient. According to the court's press release of 26 March 2025, the judgment was not final; whether an appeal was lodged is not known here.
Climate targets on a corporate website also count as advertising and must disclose there what role offsetting plays.
Climate targets on the corporate website as advertising
- Authority / court
- Landgericht Nürnberg-Fürth
- Area of law
- Environment and sustainability · Misleading environmental and sustainability claims
- Legal basis
- UWG (irreführende Werbung); Az. 3 HK O 6524/24
- Action
- Other
- Status of proceedings
- unknown
- Sector
- Retail and e-commerce
- Employees
- 10,000 or more
- Published
- 26 Mar 2025
Checked against the official source on 2 Oct 2026 · Direct link
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27 Jun 2024 BGH: advertising with ‘climate neutral’ only permissible with explanation in the advertisement itself Order
A manufacturer of fruit gums and liquorice (not named in the official press release) advertised in a trade journal that it had produced all its products ‘climate neutral’ since 2021, although this was achieved partly through offsetting. Germany's Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) prohibited the advertising following an action brought by the Centre for Protection against Unfair Competition (Wettbewerbszentrale): ambiguous environmental terms must be explained in the advertisement itself, since reduction and offsetting are not equivalent.
Companies advertising with ‘climate neutral’ must explain directly in the advertisement whether emissions are avoided or merely offset.
Legally compliant environmental and climate claims in advertising
- Authority / court
- Bundesgerichtshof (I. Zivilsenat)
- Area of law
- Environment and sustainability · Misleading environmental and sustainability claims
- Legal basis
- § 3 Abs. 1, § 5 Abs. 1, § 5a Abs. 1 und 3, § 8 Abs. 1 Satz 1 UWG
- Action
- Order
- Status of proceedings
- final
- Sector
- Food and agriculture
- Published
- 27 Jun 2024
- Bundesgerichtshof, Pressemitteilungen (Übersicht) (Entscheidung 2024) Court press release
Checked against the official source on 28 Sep 2026 · Version 4 · Company name anonymised since 27 Jun 2026 · Direct link
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26 Jul 2023 a German drugstore chainKarlsruhe court bans drugstore chain's 'climate/environmentally neutral' claims Order
On an action by Deutsche Umwelthilfe, the Landgericht Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe Regional Court) ordered a German drugstore chain to stop advertising liquid soap, sun lotion and shower cream on the packaging as 'climate neutral' and a washing-up liquid as an 'environmentally neutral product'. In the court's view, the packaging of two of the products lacked essential information on the term; moreover, CO2 offsetting via, among other things, a time-limited forest protection project could in principle not deliver the promised lasting climate neutrality.
Anyone advertising climate neutrality through offsetting must explain on the packaging itself what is offset and must not promise a permanent effect that time-limited projects cannot deliver.
Climate-neutral claims based on CO2 offsetting
- Authority / court
- Landgericht Karlsruhe, Kammer für Handelssachen
- Area of law
- Environment and sustainability · Misleading environmental and sustainability claims
- Legal basis
- § 5 Abs. 1 Satz 1, Abs. 2 Nr. 1 UWG; § 5a Abs. 1 UWG
- Action
- Order
- Status of proceedings
- unknown
- Sector
- Retail and e-commerce
- Employees
- 10,000 or more
- Published
- 26 Jul 2023
Checked against the official source on 2 Oct 2026 · Company name anonymised since 26 Jul 2025 · Direct link