Lululemon Lawsuit Alleges Retailer Deceives Consumers With Be Planet ‘Greenwashing’ Campaign

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Lululemon faces a proposed class action lawsuit that alleges the athleisure retailer has taken advantage of consumers by falsely and misleadingly “greenwashing” its operations, products and business practices as sustainable and positively impacting the environment.

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The 53-page Lululemon false advertising lawsuit says that although the retailer represents through its “Be Planet” campaign its purported commitment to becoming a “more sustainable and equitable business,” among other assurances, these marketing claims “portray Lululemon as something it is not,” as the company, one of the largest apparel sellers worldwide, maintains “a significant and growing climate and environmental footprint.”

As the complaint tells it, Lululemon’s actions and products, in stark contrast to its purportedly greenwashed marketing claims, “directly cause harm to the environment and the deterioration of the planet’s health – the opposite of its Be Planet promises and representations.” The case reasons that Lululemon’s allegedly deceptive sustainability and eco-friendly representations serve to convince consumers to pay the premium prices the company charges for its products.

“Instead of sustaining and positively improving the planet,” the proposed class action alleges, “Lululemon is increasingly causing negative impact and harm.”

In particular, the Lululemon lawsuit alleges the company is responsible for “significant greenhouse gas emissions, landfill waste, and release of microplastics into the environment,” among other alleged harms. The remedying and/or negating of these environmental harms is a material consideration for consumers when making purchasing decisions, particularly for clothing and other apparel, the suit highlights.

The filing charges that microplastics from Lululemon’s polyester and nylon products “[pollute] our oceans and inland waters,” while landfills around the world collect the company’s “discarded, synthetic garments.” Meanwhile, the complaint continues, fossil fuels are used to power the factories of Lululemon suppliers and create their synthetic textiles, and the shipping of Lululemon products globally adds to greenhouse gas emissions and damages the marine environment, the suit says.

Critically, amid a global climate crisis, and in contrast to its “sustainable” marketing claims, Lululemon’s greenhouse gas emissions “have more than doubled since the start of the Be Planet campaign” four years ago, the lawsuit alleges.

According to the suit, Lululemon’s Be Planet campaign centers on commitments by the company to have all of its products include sustainable materials and end-of-use solutions by 2030; ensure that at least three-quarters of its products contain sustainable materials by 2025; offer consumers ways to extend the life of products by providing reselling, repairing or recycling options by 2025; source 100 percent renewable electricity to power its operations by 2021 and reduce carbon emissions significantly by 2030; reduce its freshwater use intensity by half to make its products; and reduce single-use plastic packaging by 50 percent by 2025.

The case calls Lululemon’s Be Planet marketing campaign “objectively false, deceptive, and misleading,” in violation of virtually every Federal Trade Commission guideline for environmental marketing claims, and an urgent concern for consumers who, through buying the apparel, may cause unintended environmental damage from their purchases.

The filing notes that Canada’s Competition Bureau has opened a formal investigation into Lululemon over its allegedly deceptive marketing claims at issue in the proposed class action lawsuit.

The Lululemon greenwashing class action lawsuit looks to cover all individuals who bought any Lululemon-branded product for personal use and not for resale in the United States at any time since October 28, 2020.

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