A French court ordered TotalEnergies to stop claiming carbon neutrality by 2050

On 23 October 2025, the Paris Judicial Court ruled that TotalEnergies had engaged in misleading commercial practices with two claims used in its advertising: 'carbon neutrality by 2050' and 'major player in the energy transition'. The case had been brought in March 2022 by Greenpeace France, Notre Affaire à Tous and Les Amis de la Terre, with ClientEarth supporting.

The court ordered TotalEnergies to stop the claims until it could substantiate them, to publish the judgment on its website for 180 days, and to pay €15,000 in legal costs plus €8,000 to each of the three NGOs. TotalEnergies said it would not appeal. It was the first time a major oil company had been held to account in court for its green advertising claims.

The ruling turned on the difference between an ambition and an attribute. 'Carbon neutrality by 2050' was presented in advertising as a fact about the company rather than a conditional target, and 'major player in the energy transition' was judged disproportionate while oil and gas still dominated the company's investments and plans. French consumer law judges what the ad says, not what the strategy document means.

The case did not order TotalEnergies to change its business, and the company kept selling fossil fuels. What it did was put a price and a process on unsubstantiated green claims in advertising, and it gave every competitor and every advertiser a clear reading of where the line sits.