Lawmakers in the European Union (EU) have proposed new rules to protect consumers from misleading environmental claims, or greenwashing. The proposed rules include a ban on generic environmental claims such as “eco-friendly” or “green”, and require companies to substantiate and verify their environmental claims and labels. The European Council has adopted its negotiating position on the proposed “Directive on Green Claims”, which will guide negotiations with the EU Parliament.
The proposed directive aims to enhance consumers’ rights by amending the unfair commercial practices directive and the consumer rights directive. The Council position reinforces consumer rights, bans generic environmental claims, and introduces a European Union harmonised graphic format to help consumers recognise commercial guarantees of durability.
According to Erik Slottner, Swedish Minister for Public Administration, the green transition requires collective effort, and the role of consumer behavior is paramount. To equip consumers to play that role with reliable information, protection against misleading advertising, and easier ways to recycle or repair, the Council position reinforces consumer rights by addressing unfair commercial practices.
Many consumers want to buy more sustainable products to contribute to the circular economy. However, they often encounter unfair commercial practices, such as misleading green claims, or products that break earlier than expected or are too difficult or expensive to repair. To address these issues, the Council proposes banning generic environmental claims that cannot be substantiated by publicly accessible certification schemes. Only sustainability labels based on official certification schemes or registered as certification marks or established by public authorities would be allowed in the future.
The Council also proposes introducing measures related to information on the durability and reparability of the product or the methods used by traders to compare the sustainability of the products they sell. The Council proposal expands the annex to the unfair commercial practices directive listing commercial practices that will be banned in all circumstances, referred to as the “blacklist.”
To enforce consumer rights, the Council proposes a commercial guarantee of durability for producers, committing them to maintain certain functions or performances during an indicated period. The Council proposes creating a harmonized graphic format to inform consumers about such guarantees of durability for specific goods, providing a single visual logo for consumers in the internal market to identify goods covered by these guarantees. The compromise text also obliges traders to provide the right of information for products containing digital elements.
To allow member states sufficient time to adapt to changes in the legislation, the Council position extends the transposition period from 18 to 24 months.
The Council’s negotiating position formalizes its mandate for negotiations with the European Parliament, which can start as soon as the Parliament adopts its position. The proposal is part of a package of four proposals, together with the Ecodesign regulation and the directive proposals on green claims and the right to repair, set out in the Commission’s 2020 new consumer agenda and 2020 circular economy action plan and follows up on the European Green Deal.