EU Greenwashing Directives I

The EU Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive is a new regulation aimed at strengthening consumer protection and promoting sustainability. This Directive builds on existing EU consumer protection laws by introducing stricter rules against greenwashing. It ensures that consumers receive accurate, transparent, and verifiable information about the environmental and social characteristics of products, including their durability, repairability, and recyclability. It entered into force on 27 March 2024, with Member States required to transpose it by March 2026 and enforce it from 27 September 2026.  

The Directive introduces several measures to ban misleading commercial practices and enhance transparency in environmental claims. Key provisions include:  

For consumers, the Directive aims to empower them with better information, allowing them to make more informed, sustainable purchasing choices. By eliminating misleading claims and false advertising, consumers will have greater confidence in genuinely sustainable products and brands. For businesses, it levels the playing field by ensuring that companies genuinely committed to sustainability are not undercut by competitors making deceptive green claims. It also places new compliance responsibilities on businesses, requiring them to ensure all environmental claims are transparent, verifiable, and backed by evidence.

The Directive is part of the EU’s broader Green Deal agenda and its commitment to achieving net-zero emissions. It aligns with other EU strategies like the New Circular Economy Action Plan, the New Consumer Agenda, and the Green Deal Industrial Plan, all of which focus on sustainability and reducing environmental harm. By targeting consumer-facing greenwashing, the Directive complements existing rules that have already addressed greenwashing in financial and corporate sectors.