The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld rulings against four online retailers over ads that promoted carbon neutral or carbon positive delivery without making clear how the claims were achieved. The rulings were published on 11 November 2026.
The ads were found through the ASA’s own intelligence gathering and its Active Ad Monitoring system, which uses AI to search for online ads that may break the rules. The rulings form part of a wider piece of work on carbon neutral delivery claims.
The ads
- ProCook: a paid Google search ad for the kitchenware retailer, seen on 8 June 2026, said “Carbon Neutral Delivery”.
- SportsShoes.com (B Sporting Ltd): a paid Google search ad, seen on 9 June 2026, said “Carbon Neutral Deliveries”.
- Who Gives A Crap: a paid Meta ad for the toilet roll retailer, seen on 9 June 2026, included “Carbon neutral shipping” in its caption.
- Grind: a paid Google search ad for the coffee retailer’s subscription delivery, seen on 12 June 2026, said “Carbon Positive Delivery”.
Why the ads were banned
In each case, the ASA accepted that shoppers would understand the claim as covering delivery or shipping only, not the full life cycle of the products. But it found that none of the ads said whether carbon neutrality came from cutting emissions or from buying offsetting credits. All four claims depended on offsetting.
The ASA said the 270-character limit on Google search ads still left room to explain the basis of the claims, and that the ads’ landing pages did not explain them either. It described “Carbon Positive” as ambiguous, as shoppers could read it as meaning the same as carbon neutral or as something more.
All four ads breached CAP Code rules 3.1 and 3.3 on misleading advertising and 11.1 on environmental claims. They must not appear again in the form investigated.
All four businesses had already withdrawn the ads. ProCook said it was auditing its historical ads, SportsShoes.com said future ads with environmental claims would be checked by its environmental consultancy, Grind said it was changing future references to carbon neutral delivery, and Who Gives A Crap had added a link explaining its claim to its website banner.
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