Australia’s federal court said Vanguard Investments Australia Ltd. broke the law by making misleading claims about the credentials of a bond fund, marking the watchdog’s first ruling on greenwashing.
Justice O’Bryan found that Vanguard made numerous false or misleading representations about the screening process used to rank environmental, social and governance factors of the Vanguard Ethically Conscious Global Aggregate Bond Index Fund, according to a statement from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission Thursday.