Australia’s Active Super was imposed a penalty of A$10.5 million (US$6.67 million) for greenwashing misconduct.
According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in a statement on March 18, this is the third greenwashing court outcome.
In August last year, Mercer Super was the first company to be given a A$11.3 million penalty for greenwashing misconduct. A month later, Vanguard Investment Australia, a unit of US asset manager Vanguard, was fined A$12.9 million.
“This is a significant penalty that sends a strong message to companies making sustainable investment claims that those claims need to reflect the true position. This case demonstrates ASIC’s commitment to taking on misleading marketing and greenwashing claims made by companies promoting financial services,” Sarah Court, ASIC’s deputy chair, says in the statement.
ASIC says Active Super claimed in its marketing that it eliminated investments that posed too great a risk to the environment and the community, including gambling, coal mining and oil tar sands. Following the invasion of Ukraine, Active Super also made representations that Russian investments were ‘out’.
However, according to the regulator, contrary to these representations, “Active Super held direct and indirect investments in companies such as SkyCity Entertainment Group Ltd (gambling), Gazprom PJSC (Russian entity), Shell Plc (Oil tar sands) and Whitehaven Coal (Coal mining)”.
Active Super had A$14.7 billion of assets under management as of end-June last year.