EU takes aim at greenwashing in new law to empower consumers – but gaps remain

Consumers increasingly want to reduce their environmental impact. However, without accurate, verifiable information, they have faced a wild west of green claims [1] – until now.

This is the beginning of the end for greenwashing in the EU

The Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive, agreed today in the European Parliament, finally includes common greenwashing tactics in the list of unfair commercial practices. Over 50% of claims will either disappear or have to change. As a result, EU consumers will soon see far fewer meaningless environmental claims, including bans on:

• Claims that a product has a reduced or no impact on the environment based on the use of carbon offsetting credits, which are unconnected to actual emissions reduction. This is the end of climate neutral flights and bananas – impossible claims that should never have been permitted.
• Claims of future environmental performance with no realistic commitments from the company to reach their stated goal. Companies will have to communicate their plans and have them regularly verified by an independent third-party expert.
• Generic claims with no explanation or evidence. No more ‘planet friendly’ or ‘100% green’ presented alone on a billboard.
• Sustainability labels without proper and independent certification processes – including labels created by companies for their own products to give the false impression that claims have been verified.

One down one to go: Green Claims Directive could fill the gaps

The Empowering Consumers Directive sends a strong message that greenwashing in the EU will no longer be tolerated, but enforcement will be the real measure of its success – and complementary legislation, such as the Green Claims Directive [2], is still needed.

The Empowering Consumers Directive requires companies to provide evidence, but it does not require environmental claims to be verified before they are made (something proposed under the Green Claims Directive). This would have been an important safeguard, so it is a shame it is not built into this legislation. Instead, the burden is placed on government authorities who will have to continue to pour more resources into market surveillance and use penalties to deter companies from making misleading green claims – something that could have been avoided by shifting the burden with mandatory third-party verification.

In practice, claims with no evidence whatsoever will be easy to spot and remove by authorities, but it is unlikely that claims with some substantiation (accurate or misleading) will be checked at all, leaving the door open to more complicated forms of greenwashing. Without the complementary Green Claims Directive, the Empowering Consumers legislation might just miss the mark.

There is little time left to finalise many important files before the EU election in June 2024 – including the Green Claims Directive. This legislation is expected to provide common rules for communicating effectively about the environmental credentials of products, introduce a pre-approval procedure before claims are put on the market, strengthen rules for environmental labels, and introduce stricter sanctions against greenwashing [3]. However, the proposed text is unlikely to be agreed upon by the current legislature.

Finalising only one of these two interlinked directives before the EU election would be a missed opportunity to stamp out greenwashing once and for all. The European Parliament and Council must step up and agree their positions on the Green Claims Directive before the election – one out of two will not be enough to eradicate greenwashing.

Quote

Margaux Le Gallou, Programme Manager at ECOS – Environmental Coalition on Standards, said:

“Today, more than half of green claims are misleading or unverifiable – among them, climate neutrality claims, which are a common form of greenwashing. This directive puts an end to these claims. However, it relies heavily on market surveillance, which we know is lacking, and leaves a lot to the Green Claims Directive, which is unlikely to be adopted under the current legislature.

This is good progress, but legislators need to step up regulatory action. No more wild west of green claims – only informed consumers!”

ENDS

Notes to editors

[1] ‘Greenwashing, certified? How to ensure new laws and standards do not rubberstamp dubious climate neutrality claims’, ECOS report, March 2023: https://ecostandard.org/publications/report-greenwashing-certified-how-to-ensure-new-laws-and-standards-do-not-rubberstamp-dubious-climate-neutrality-claims/

[2] Proposal for a Directive on Green Claims, European Commission, March 2023: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/proposal-directive-green-claims_en

[3] ECOS position paper on EU Green Claims Directive proposal, July 2023: https://ecostandard.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Feedback-on-the-Green-Claims-Directive.pdf

[4] ‘EU targets greenwashing with Empowering Consumers Directive that bans misleading climate claims based on offsetting’, ECOS press release, September 2023: https://ecostandard.org/news_events/eu-targets-greenwashing-with-empowering-consumers-directive-that-bans-misleading-climate-claims-based-on-offsetting/

Contact

If you have questions, please contact me:

Alison Grace, Press & Communications Manager at ECOS, alison.grace@ecostandard.org, +32 493 19 22 59

ECOS – Environmental Coalition on Standards is an international NGO with a network of members and experts advocating for environmentally friendly technical standards, policies, and laws.