The UK’s Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has banned adverts from Adidas, Uniqlo, and Clavin Klein over misleading claims that their products were made from recycled materials.

All three rulings were issued on Wednesday and form part of a wider piece of work investigating environmental claims in the retail fashion sector. The agency said the adverts were identified for investigation using its AI-powered Active Ad Monitoring System that proactively surveys adverts in specific sectors.

Each relates to paid-for Google ads stating that some of their products were recycled: Adidas promoted “recycled running shoes”, while Calvin Klein advertised “recycled” women’s tops and Uniqlo fleece jackets and coats made from “recycled materials”.

The ASA challenged whether these claims were misleading and could be substantiated.

In response, Adidas explained it did not operate a dedicated recycled running shoe range, but said certain products in its collection might contain recycled materials.

Calvin Klein said it expected consumers to understand the advertisement as suggesting that certain collections from the women’s tops range contained recycled materials, adding that it did not believe it would be reasonable for consumers to believe that all products in the range did.

Uniqlo said it believed consumers would understand their claim to mean that the jackets were made “to a meaningful extent” from recycled materials, adding that its use of recycled polyester was supported by a recognised international certification scheme.

However, the ASA in each case said that the use of the word recycled without further qualification would lead consumers to believe that all associated products were entirely made of recycled materials.

It added that advertisers should not suggest a product was made from a single fabric if that was not true.

“Absolute environmental claims must be supported by a high level of substantiation,” the ASA said.

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