With the public increasingly concerned about environmental issues, some companies have made their products and production processes greener. However, other corporations have engaged in greenwashing — they have made an "unsubstantiated claim to deceive consumers into believing that a company's products are environmentally friendly or have a greater positive environmental impact than they actually do," said Investopedia. Companies can be punished for greenwashing, and often forced to pay hefty fines. Here are three examples.

Volkswagen ($30B)
Volkswagen has had the largest greenwashing fine to date. In 2015, the company was caught rigging two of its diesel engines to make them appear to release fewer emissions. In reality, the engines were releasing 40 times the nitrogen oxide permitted by the Environmental Protection Agency, BBC said. VW incurred costs of approximately $30 billion, including a $2.8 billion criminal penalty from the U.S. government, a $125 million fine in Australia, and $590 million from the European Commission. Six employees also faced criminal charges in the U.S. 

Toyota ($180M)
Automaker Toyota was required to pay a $180 million fine for Clean Air Act violations. Between 2005 and 2015, the company "systematically failed to report defects that interfered with how its cars controlled tailpipe emissions, violating standards designed to protect public health and the environment from harmful air pollutants," The New York Times said. In addition, "managers and staff in Japan knew about the practice but failed to stop it, and the automaker quite likely sold millions of vehicles with the defects." Toyota may also face an additional $50 million fine from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

DWS ($25M)
Deutsche Bank's investment firm DWS must pay $25 million as determined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over its statements regarding the environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing process. A two-year investigation found that the firm made "materially misleading statements about its controls for incorporating ESG factors into research and investment recommendations for ESG integrated products," said ESGToday. The fine also encompasses DWS' failure to "develop a mutual-fund anti-money laundering program as required by law," Reuters said. 

People wear costumes made from cans and plastic bottles during the Carnaval Des Deux Rives in Bordeaux, France. 
Thibaud Moritz / Getty Images

No horror movies were nominated for Best Picture at the 2024 Academy Awards. They rarely score Oscar nominations in any category, despite frequent box office success. 

Social media spoofs
Contemporary horror leans heavily on the theme of grief, but Danny and Michael Philippou put a fresh spin on trauma in "Talk to Me." In it, a group of teenagers takes turns being possessed by a severed hand, before uploading the footage to social media. It is a bitter spoof of youth media culture and a thoughtful meditation on grieving and addiction, as teen Mia gets hooked on the hand when it lets her communicate with her dead mother. 

Old themes get new life
Rich white vacationers have been under fire lately, from the satire of "Triangle of Sadness" to HBO's "White Lotus." Another cutting takedown is Brandon Cronenberg's "Infinity Pool," which follows a group of tourists visiting a Mediterranean island. After leaving their resort for the day, one tourist accidentally kills a local and gets plunged into the island's dystopian justice system, where criminals are forced to watch clones of themselves getting executed. 

Another standout is Demián Rugna's "When Evil Lurks," a reimagining of the demonic-possession story that also functions as a critique of government indifference to social problems. When two brothers find a possessed person, their attempts to kill the demon inadvertently trigger chaos, and no authority figure seems to care.