EU adopts new rules to combat greenwashing in advertising

The aim of the new rules is to enable consumers to make better-informed purchasing decisions with regard to the environmental impact, durability and reparability of products and thus foster more sustainable consumption patterns. An increasing number of companies are trying to market themselves and their products as environmentally friendly. Consumers can at times be misled if environmental benefits of certain products are either baseless or exaggerated.

The new ‘Directive on empowering consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and better information’ ((EU) 2024/825) therefore amends and complements the existing ‘Unfair Commercial Practices Directive’ (2005/29/EC) and the ‘Consumer Rights Directive’ (2011/83/EU). The English title of the Directive is abbreviated as ECGT or EmpCo.

The amendments require the presentation of reliable, comparable, substantiated and verifiable information on the environmental characteristics of products and companies. In future, only substantiated environmental statements will be permitted. In addition, new requirements for labels, such as publicly available criteria and a third-party certification system, will make labelling more transparent for consumers. These changes will also provide consumers, consumer associations, market players, and courts with more precise guidance to assess whether there is a case of unfair environmental advertising.

The Directive entered into force on March 26, 2024. Implementation in the Member States must take place by March 27, 2026 and will apply from September 27, 2026. The Directive is to be supplemented by another EU Directive, the Green Claims Directive (GCD). The aim is to establish more specific requirements for the justification, verifiability and communication of explicit environmental claims.

The most important changes in brief:

Amendments to the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (2005/29/EC)

The Directive regulates the conduct of companies in competition and, in particular, the admissibility of advertising claims.

General prohibitions of certain commercial practices (amendment to the list of unfair commercial practices / Annex I)

General environmental claims (e.g. ‘green’, ‘eco’) as written or spoken text are prohibited, with a few exceptions. Environmental claims with a clear specification and justification are still admissible.
The credibility of sustainability labels will be improved. For example, labels with a sustainability label that does not originate from government agencies or are based on a third-party certification system will be prohibited. In addition, labels must be accessible to all companies and their evaluation standards must be published.
Environmental claims about the entire product are prohibited if they apply only partially.
Product-related climate claims based on the offsetting of greenhouse gas emissions are included in the list of unfair practices and are therefore severely restricted. This means that manufacturers and distributors can no longer advertise that their product has a neutral, reduced or positive impact on the environment in terms of its greenhouse gas emissions if this is based on compensation outside their value chain. Corporate statements are not covered by the new rule.
It is also prohibited to communicate compliance with any legal obligations as a distinctive feature.
In order to make durability and reparability more transparent as a criterion for the purchase decision, the following practices are prohibited:

to withhold information that software updates may have a negative impact on the functioning of goods.
to present a software update as necessary if it only serves to improve the functionality features.
to commercially communicate a product containing a feature introduced to limit its shelf life, although information on the feature and its impact on the shelf life of the product is available to the trader.
to make a false claim that a product has a certain shelf life in terms of time or intensity of use under normal conditions of use.
to present products as repairable if such repair is not possible.
to induce consumers to replace or replenish consumables of a product earlier than is necessary for technical reasons.
withhold information that the functionality of goods is compromised when using consumables, spare parts or accessories not provided by the original manufacturer, or falsely claim that such interference will occur.

The following elements have been added to Articles 6 (misleading acts) and 7 (misleading omissions):

Explicit clarification that environmental and social characteristics as well as circularity aspects, such as durability, reparability or recyclability, should not be misrepresented.
Claims regarding future environmental performance (such as a future climate-neutral company) must be transparent and verifiable.
In the case of comparative environmental claims, the comparisons shall be objective and shall be made using a uniform methodology and assumptions.
Irrelevant features or characteristics that are not directly related to a feature of the product or business in question may not be advertised.

Amendments to the EU Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU)

The purpose of the Consumer Rights Directive is to achieve a high level of consumer protection in contracts concluded between consumers and traders.

The amendments to the Consumer Rights Directive concern mandatory pre-contractual information, including on durability, reparability and availability of updates, as well as commercial and legal guarantees.

Consumers should be provided with information on commercial durability guarantees in the form of harmonised labelling. They should be informed of the existence and duration of a commercial durability guarantee if it is granted by the manufacturer at no additional cost for the entire product and for a period of more than two years.

In order to prevent consumers from confusing a commercial durability guarantee with the legal warranty rights, consumers should also be informed on the harmonised label that they can also use the legal warranty rights.

The Commission will also be given implementing powers with regard to the design and content of the harmonised labelling.

Consumers should be informed of the minimum period for which the manufacturer will provide software updates.
Consumers should receive information on the existence and conditions of after-sale services, including repair services, prior to the conclusion of the contract.
Where a reparability score is set at EU (European Union) level, businesses should make it available to these consumers. Where no repairability score is set at EU level, operators shall provide other relevant repair information (information on availability, estimated costs and procedure for ordering spare parts, availability of repair and maintenance instructions and repair restrictions).
In addition, consumers should be informed about the availability of environmentally friendly delivery options.

EU adopts new rules to combat greenwashing in advertising | Umweltbundesamt