The ASA tells fashion brands to qualify green claims before London Fashion Week.
CAP’s 10 September note on green claims in fashion ads walks through the Adidas, Uniqlo, Calvin Klein and Superdry rulings before London Fashion Week.
The Committee of Advertising Practice, the ASA’s code-writing arm, published a note on environmental claims in fashion advertising on 10 September, timed for London Fashion Week.
It restates the rules with recent rulings attached, which is what makes it useful: the same claims appear in a paid social ad or an organic post as in a poster, and the ASA’s remit covers both, on every channel a fashion brand posts on.
The rulings it uses. In June the ASA ruled against Adidas, Uniqlo and Calvin Klein for unqualified “recycled” claims; Adidas’s “Recycled Running Shoes” range copy implied every shoe was made of recycled material and carried no qualifying information. Lacoste, Nike and Superdry fell foul of the “sustainable” rules in 2025; Superdry’s “Sustainable Style” was read as a claim about its whole range across its whole lifecycle, and the fact that 64% of its 2024 products contained sustainably sourced materials did not save it. Charles Tyrwhitt’s “proud to be a Carbon Neutral business” was ruled misleading in 2023 for stating no basis for the claim, and Calvin Klein’s “Responsibly sourced collections” failed because no tops in the range were entirely made of certified material.
The note’s tests: state the basis of a claim in the ad itself, explain terms such as “sustainable”, narrow a broad claim to the stage of the product it applies to, say whether a carbon-neutral or net-zero claim rests on reductions or offsetting and name the scheme, and hold evidence that is current and specific to the exact claim. CAP points to its updated guidance, Greenspeaking with confidence, and a checklist.
What it means for brands
If a fashion brand’s social calendar has a sustainability post or a paid ad this month, run the copy against the tests above before it goes out, and remember the qualifying information has to be in the post, not on a landing page. “Recycled”, “sustainable” and “carbon neutral” without a stated basis are the three phrases the ASA has just shown it will rule on.
Sources
The NBK Social briefing
Social media news and analysis from NBK Social, by email.