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By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) - Apple has been sued by consumers who said its claim that three versions of Apple Watches are "carbon neutral" and environmentally friendly is false and misleading.
In a complaint filed on Wednesday in San Jose, California federal court, seven purchasers of the green-tagged Apple Watch Series 9, SE and Ultra 2 said they would not have bought their watches or would have paid less had they known the truth.
Apple, also known for the iPhone, launched the watches in September 2023, saying they would be carbon neutral through a combination of lower emissions and purchases of carbon offsets.
But the plaintiffs--from California, Florida and Washington, D.C.--said two carbon offsetting projects on which Apple relied to meet its corporate emissions target did not provide "genuine" carbon reductions.
They said much of the land in Kenya's Chyulu Hills Project lies within a national park protected from deforestation since 1983, while land for China's Guinan Project was heavily covered by trees even before the project began in 2015.
"In both cases, the carbon reductions would have occurred regardless of Apple's involvement or the projects' existence," the complaint said. "Because Apple's carbon neutrality claims are predicated on the efficacy and legitimacy of these projects, Apple’s carbon neutrality claims are false and misleading."
The plaintiffs also said 70% of U.S. and Canadian consumers consider environmental sustainability crucial when making purchases, citing a study by the National Retail Federation and IBM.
In a statement on Thursday responding to the lawsuit, Apple did not discuss the case but defended its environmental record.
"We've drastically cut emissions for Apple Watch by over 75%, and we are investing significantly in nature-based projects to remove hundreds of thousands of metric tons of carbon from the air," it said. "We detail our work prominently and transparently for our users."
The Cupertino, California-based company has aimed to be carbon neutral by 2030, including in its supply chain.
Wednesday's lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction blocking Apple from marketing the three watches as carbon neutral.
The case is Dib et al v Apple Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 25-02043.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Kirsten Donovan)