Iberdrola considers the organization's failure "one more example of its lack of objectivity" and will launch a new campaign to promote aerothermal energy
The Association for the Self-Regulation of Commercial Communication (Autocontrol) has once again agreed with Repsol in its fight with Iberdrola over cross accusations of misleading advertising.
Specifically, the third section of the Self-Control Jury has upheld a claim presented by the group led by Josu Jon Imaz against an advertisement by the electricity company in which aerothermal energy was promoted.
Repsol's claim is directed against an advertisement broadcast on television and radio by Iberdrola in which aerothermal energy was promoted and implied that the European Council would force Spain to gradually eliminate gas boilers.
Thus, the oil company considered that this advertising was "contrary to the principle of truthfulness" and "misleading", while neither Directive (EU) 2023/1791 of the European Parliament and of the Council of September 13, 2023 regarding energy efficiency , and which modifies Regulation (EU) 2023/955, nor the Proposal for a Directive on the energy efficiency of buildings, determined "the prohibition of gas boilers nor their mandatory replacement by aerothermal energy."
That is why Repsol considered that this advertising launched "a false claim about background information that is not easily accessible to an average consumer and moreover."
Thus, the organization declares that this campaign violates rule 14 of the Self-Control Advertising Code of Conduct and urges Iberdrola Clients to rectify the claimed advertising.
Likewise, it requires Iberdrola Clients to pay any fees that may eventually accrue to Autocontrol for the processing of this procedure, in accordance with the rates approved by its governing bodies.
For its part, Iberdrola has shown its disagreement with the latest resolutions on advertising against the electricity company, estimating that this latest ruling by Autocontrol is "one more example of its lack of objectivity" and "lacks a valid and impartial foundation", at the same time which has announced that it will start a new commercial campaign promoting aerothermal energy as a gradual replacement for boilers that burn fossil fuels, company sources told Europa Press.
In this sense, the electricity company has considered that the campaign it launched was limited to anticipating the content of the European Directive on energy efficiency in buildings, which was ratified by the European Council on April 12, and whose text includes the obligation to member states to adopt measures to phase out fossil fuels in heating with the aim of completely phasing out fossil fuel boilers by 2040.
Thus, he stressed that "in no way did the advertising campaign affirm that the obligation to eliminate gas boilers had been approved, but rather it was limited to" anticipating what has ended up happening with respect to the approval of the Directive, offering a product and a quality service (aerothermal) in view of the gradual decarbonization process in the European Union which is, clearly, inevitable".
The electricity company has stated that Autocontrol goes so far as to state that the Building Energy Efficiency Directive 'will not affect all gas boilers, but only those gas boilers that use exclusively fossil fuel', "when the reality is that it is still to be defined within the European Union what the definition of fossil boilers will be for the application of this Directive".
"Nowhere is it established that they will be those that exclusively use fossil fuel, which has been the Jury's own elaboration, guided, again, by the dictates of Repsol," the same company sources have added.
For this reason, Iberdrola has estimated that, as has happened on previous occasions, it seems that Autocontrol, "rather than using its own reasoning, has chosen to literally adhere to the argument made by the claimant."
ALREADY DISMISSED A CLAIM FROM IBERDROLA.
In April, Autocontrol already completely dismissed a claim by Iberdrola against Repsol for an advertisement broadcast on television, in the press and on the Internet by Repsol in which its new renewable fuels were promoted.
These resolutions have occurred while the ruling of the lawsuit that Iberdrola filed last February against Repsol in the Commercial Court number 2 of Santander for "unfair competition and misleading advertising" is still pending, considering that it had incurred in ' greenwashing' or ecological bleaching.
Specifically, Iberdrola went to a court in Cantabria since, in accordance with procedural regulations, when companies with different registered offices are sued, the plaintiff can choose the location of any of those addresses. In this case, the company that competes with Iberdrola in the sale of electricity and gas, Repsol Distribuidora de Electricidad y Gas, has its registered office in Santander.
