Abraham Lizama purchased a turquoise sweater from H&M’s “Conscious Choice” collection, a line of clothing “created with a little extra consideration for the planet” which generally include “at least 50% of more sustainable materials.” Although we imagine that Lizama looked quite handsome in his sweater, he soon regretted his purchase and filed a class action against the retailer, accusing it of greenwashing because the sweater did not meet his view about what’s good for the environment.
Lizama argued that H&M misled consumers into thinking that its Conscious Choice collection was “environmentally friendly.” (By our count, that phrase appears more than 100 times in the complaint.) The court pointed out, though, that H&M never actually uses that phrase to describe its garments. Moreover, H&M does not represent that its Conscious Choice products are “sustainable” – only that the line includes “more sustainable materials” and its “most sustainable products,” which the court said are obvious comparisons to H&M’s regular materials.
Lizama argued that the garments were not sustainable because recycling PET plastics into clothing isn’t as good for the environment as recycling those plastics into plastic bottles. Even if that’s the case, the court noted that the comparison wasn’t relevant in determining whether H&M’s claims were misleading. “Instead, the relevant comparison is whether one garment using recycled polyester is more sustainable than another garment using non-recycled (also known as virgin) polyester.”