Lufthansa Loses Greenwashing Lawsuit, Rebrands Green Fares As Impact Fares

In 2023, Lufthansa introduced “Green Fares.” As you may have guessed based on the name, the idea is that these fares offer some level of carbon offsets, but beyond that, they offer added flexibility, plus bonus miles and status qualification. Well, Lufthansa has now announced that it’s rebranding these fares, and the change isn’t voluntary…

Lufthansa Green Fares become Impact Fares

Lufthansa Group is renaming its Green Fares, and going forward, they’ll be known as Impact Fares. Here’s how Lufthansa describes this change:

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The Lufthansa Group is renaming its Green Fare to Impact Fare. The new name places even stronger emphasis on customers’ contribution to greater sustainability in aviation and thus reflects new regulatory requirements for environmental communication: By choosing an Impact Fare, passengers support the additional use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) across the Lufthansa Group’s route network. In addition, they contribute to selected climate protection projects outside the company’s value chain.

Lufthansa explains that for every Impact Fare booked, the company deploys an additional amount of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in its flight operation within six months of departure. For flights within Europe, this volume is based on 20% of the estimated flight related CO2 emissions.

The fare also supports climate protection projects, based on the remaining 80% of the estimated flight related CO2 emissions. On intercontinental routes, the ratio is 10% to 90%. In addition, passengers receive bonus miles for these fares, along with more flexible rebooking options.

Lufthansa lost a court battle over these Green Fares

While Lufthansa acknowledges that the rebranding of these fares is in response to “new regulatory requirements,” the airline also tries to claim that “the new name places even stronger emphasis on customers’ contribution to greater sustainability in aviation.”

So, what’s really going on here? In March 2025, NGO Environmental Action Germany won a greenwashing lawsuit against Lufthansa related to these fares, on grounds of misleading consumers with sustainability claims. The court had ruled that consumers choosing to offset their flights with the “Green Fares” were left in the dark as to the extent of the carrier’s climate compensation in relation to the flight booked. Furthermore, the fares including SAF made it seem like consumers were directly contributing to offsetting their own flights.

As the NGO Environmental Action Germany explained, “the court confirms our criticism and addresses how one of the world’s largest airlines systematically deceives customers and pretends that air travel is climate-neutral in exchange for additional fees.”

Now, at this point that was over 18 months ago, but as you’d expect, it often takes time for cases to go through courts, appeals to happen, etc. So we’re just now seeing the impact of this lawsuit, and Lufthansa finally making the change. There is a certain irony to Lufthansa losing a battle for greenwashing, and then claiming the new name places an even stronger emphasis on how much customers are contributing to sustainability. Hmmm…

This isn’t the first time that Lufthansa has gotten in trouble for greenwashing. In 2022, Lufthansa got in trouble with UK regulators over an ad that showed a plane in the top half of the image, and the earth in the bottom half of the image, with the following caption:

“LUFTHANSA GROUP, CONNECTING THE WORLD. PROTECTING ITS FUTURE. #MakeChangeFly”

Bottom line

Lufthansa is once again in trouble for greenwashing. This time around, the airline has been forced to rebrand its Green Fares, with the claim being that they made consumers believe that by booking these fares, they weren’t harming the environment. These fares are now known as Impact Fares, with all the same perks as the previous Green Fares.

What do you make of Lufthansa being forced to rebrand Green Fares?