Green Claims Directive

Introduction

The Proposal for a Green Claims Directive (Directive on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims) is a legislative initiative by the European Commission designed to combat greenwashing and ensure that consumers receive reliable, comparable, and verifiable environmental information. It acts as a lex specialis, complementing the general consumer protection rules under the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) by providing specific rules for voluntary environmental claims.

Main Goal

The primary objectives are to increase the level of environmental protection, protect consumers and companies from misleading green claims, improve legal certainty, and boost the competitiveness of economic operators effectively managing their environmental sustainability.

Who It Applies To

The Directive applies to traders making voluntary, explicit environmental claims about products or the trader itself in business-to-consumer (B2C) commercial practices within the EU.

Exemptions

• Microenterprises (fewer than 10 employees and annual turnover not exceeding €2 million) are exempt from the obligations regarding substantiation and communication, unless they voluntarily wish to obtain a certificate of conformity.
• It does not apply to claims regulated by other specific EU legislation (e.g., EU Ecolabel, Organic Food, Energy Labeling) or the financial services sector.

Key Provisions

Substantiation of Claims

Traders must carry out an assessment that:

• Relies on recognized scientific evidence and state-of-the-art technical knowledge.
• Demonstrates impacts from a life-cycle perspective.
• Identifies whether improvements in one area cause significant harm (trade-offs) in another.
• Uses accurate primary information (company-specific data) for relevant impacts.
• Separates greenhouse gas emissions offsets from the product's own greenhouse gas emissions.

Communication

• Claims must only cover substantiated impacts.
• Information on the product/trader and the substantiation (including the certificate of conformity) must be made available (physically or via weblink/QR code).
• Comparative claims have strict equivalency requirements for data and methodology.

Environmental Labels

• Ban on self-certification: Labels must be based on a certification scheme.
• Aggregated Scores: Labels presenting a rating/score based on a cumulative indicator are prohibited unless established under EU law.
• New Schemes: No new national public schemes allowed. New private schemes must be pre-approved by Member States and show significant added value over existing schemes.

Ex-ante Verification

Before a claim is made public, it must be verified by an accredited independent third-party verifier, who issues a Certificate of Conformity recognized across the EU.

Penalties

Member States must establish effective, proportionate, and dissuasive penalties, including:

• Fines: The maximum amount must be at least 4% of the trader's annual turnover in the concerned Member State(s).
• Confiscation of revenues gained from the transaction.
• Temporary exclusion from public procurement processes and public funding (up to 12 months).