Burger joint accused of ‘misleading’ green promotion
A popular burger chain exaggerated the scale of its tree-planting burger promotion and misled customers, a consumer watchdog claims.
Grill’d has been accused of exaggerating donations during “Tree Tuesday,” with only a small portion of burger sales qualifying for charitable contributions.
Gina Cass-Gottlieb, chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, said this amounted to a form of “greenwashing”, referring to false or misleading sustainability claims.
“We allege that Grill misled customers by exaggerating the size of its donations and the environmental contributions of its Tree Day Tuesday promotion,” he said.
“In fact, only a small percentage of purchases made on Tuesdays were eligible to be forgiven by Grill’d due to the detailed terms of the promotion, which we told customers were not disclosed or adequately explained.”
Declarations, penalties, costs and other orders are being sought by the consumer watchdog.
Of the five million burgers purchased from 173 stores across the country on Tuesdays between January 2021 and April 2024, just four per cent qualified for donations to the Greenfleet Trust, the non-profit partner responsible for planting trees to improve biodiversity and capture carbon emissions.
The fast food chain’s social media ads claim that $1 for every hamburger purchased on Tuesday is spent on tree planting.
Hooks include “a burger for you, a baby tree for the planet” and “Grill-a-Grill’d forest.”
In reality, customers had to meet a number of conditions beyond buying the burger on Tuesday to trigger the promotion, including signing up to a loyalty program and making the purchase in-store and at the counter, excluding takeout and QR code use at tables.
Some of the 26 disturbing ads posted on social media, online and in stores were more forthright about the conditions than others; However, the ACCC claims that all materials exaggerate the terms of donations made to some extent.
Ms Cass-Gottlieb said not providing customers with accurate information about environmental credentials and promotions had the potential to give businesses an unfair advantage.
“When we see a business attempting to take advantage of consumer environmental concerns through misleading or deceptive behavior, we will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action,” he said.
Grill’d said in a statement that the promotion was run with positive intent and donated more than $250,000 to plant more than 100,000 trees and restore 40 hectares of forest.
“Grill’d takes Australian consumer law very seriously and our reputation is built on trust and doing the right thing in the communities where we live,” he said.
“Grill’d has worked internally and with all stakeholders, including the ACCC, to ensure that the brand and sustainability initiatives undertaken are clear and do not cause any confusion in the eyes of the Australian public.”
Greenwashing has become an increasing priority for the ACCC; Lawsuits have recently been filed against Edgewell for allegedly misleadingly branded sunscreens as “reef friendly” and against Australian Gas Networks for questionable claims about renewable gas in their advertising.
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