The European Commission has proposed new rules aimed at protecting consumers from “greenwashing,” which refers to the practice of making misleading or false claims about the environmental benefits of a product or service.
A Commission study from 2020 highlighted that 53.3% of examined environmental claims in the EU were found to be vague, misleading or unfounded, and 40% were unsubstantiated. Furthermore, the lack of standard rules for enterprises making voluntary green claims encourages “greenwashing”. To the detriment of genuinely sustainable businesses, it creates an unequal playing field in the EU market.
The proposed rules are designed to improve transparency and trust in the market for environmentally friendly products and services. By making it easier for consumers to identify genuine environmental benefits, the rules aim to encourage more sustainable consumption patterns and support the transition to a low-carbon economy.
The European Commission’s proposal includes several key elements to improve the transparency and accuracy of environmental claims made by companies. These include:
- Reliable, comparable and verifiable information for consumers: Companies must make clear and precise environmental claims that consumers can easily understand. This means vague or ambiguous claims, such as “eco-friendly” or “green,” would no longer be allowed without clear evidence.
- Evidence-based claims: Companies would need to provide scientific evidence to support any environmental claims they make. This evidence would need to be independently verified and based on recognised standards.
- Clear and harmonised rules and labels: Many guidelines will ensure that claims are disclosed clearly. Claims or labels, for example, that employ aggregate scores of a product’s overall environmental impact will no longer be permitted unless specified in EU laws. Such comparisons should be based on comparable information and data when comparing items or organisations.
Under the proposed rules, environmental labels will be regulated. There are over 230 different environmental labels, which can cause confusion and distrust among consumers. To address this, the rules aim to limit the proliferation of new labels by requiring that any new public labelling schemes be developed at the EU level and that new private schemes must demonstrate higher environmental standards than existing ones and receive pre-approval.
Additionally, there will be detailed rules governing environmental labels in general. These rules will require labels to be reliable, transparent, independently verified, and regularly reviewed to ensure their accuracy and credibility.
The Green Claims Directive proposal will now go through the standard legislative procedure, which means that it will need to be approved by both the European Parliament and the Council before it can become law.
