Proposal by European Commission Targets Deceptive Environmental Claims and Greenwashing

The European Commission has published a proposal to arrive at joint legislation to combat greenwashing and misleading environmental claims. This is a proposal to protect consumers when they make purchases that are presented as sustainable.

The Commission writes that the common criteria against greenwashing and misleading environmental claims will lead to greater clarity and certainty in consumer purchases. This concerns situations in which a product or service is sold as ‘green’ or sustainable. Consumers also need better information to choose environmentally friendly products and services. The idea is that companies will also benefit in the form of higher sales figures, because consumers will soon be able to ‘reward’ companies more easily by choosing their products if they have really made an effort to improve the sustainability of their products.

According to the Commission, it is high time for common EU rules. In a Commission study from 2020, it emerged that 53.3 percent of the environmental claims examined in the EU turned out to be vague, misleading or unfounded and that 40 percent were unsubstantiated. The Commission believes that the lack of common EU rules for companies making voluntary green claims leads to greenwashing and an uneven playing field in the EU market, and that truly sustainable companies suffer.

The proposal stipulates that if companies choose to make a ‘green claim’ about their services or products, they must meet certain minimum standards. These standards are about how they substantiate their sustainability claims and how they communicate about this. Before companies make any of the ‘green claims’ covered by the proposal, that claim must be independently verified and supported by scientific evidence. The proposal focuses on explicit claims, such as ‘T-shirt made from recycled plastic bottles’, ‘carbon neutral delivery’ or ‘packaging made from 30 percent recycled plastic’.

The proposal should also address the proliferation of environmental labels. According to the Commission, there are currently at least 230 different labels and that would lead to confusion and mistrust among consumers. Under the proposal, governments will no longer be allowed to establish new labeling schemes unless they are developed at EU level. New private schemes must show greater environmental ambition than existing schemes and also require prior approval.

As usual with Commission proposals, the European Parliament still has to vote on them and so does the Council. It concerns a proposal to arrive at a European directive. This means that the rules must eventually also be transposed into national laws of all EU member states.

In the Netherlands, ACM has been enforcing misleading sustainability claims for some time. To this end, the regulator will have a Sustainability Claims Guide drafted. It contains five rules of thumb for companies to make reliable sustainability claims. The idea is that this offers companies something to hold on to and that it contributes to sustainable products and consumption.