New move on banning vague 'green' claims
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Jul 2023
The European Council (EC) has adopted a ‘negotiating mandate’ on the proposed directive to empower consumers for the green transition, which aims at enhancing consumers´ rights by amending the unfair commercial practices directive (UCPD) and the consumer rights directive (CRD).
The EC, made up of European Union member state heads, said it wants to strengthen consumer rights, ban generic eco-friendly, green and climate neutral product and service labels and only allow sustainability labels based on official certification schemes.
Achieving these objectives requires amendments to the EU’s UCPD and the CRD. These changes were first proposed by the EC in March 2022 as a way to empower and protect consumers navigating the low-carbon transition. Now that the council has adopted a position, formal negotiations can begin on the final shape of the amendments with the European Parliament.
A press release by EC said, “While many consumers want to contribute to the circular economy by buying more sustainable products, they are often confronted with unfair commercial practices, like misleading ‘green’ claims, or products that either break earlier than expected or that are too difficult or expensive to repair. Addressing these problems, the council position reinforces consumers’ right to information, enabling them to be active players in the green transition.
In the approved negotiating mandate, the council proposes banning generic environmental claims such as eco-friendly, green, or climate neutral. Producers would no longer be allowed to advertise their products, processes or businesses in such general terms if the claims cannot be substantiated by a publicly accessible certification scheme.
To enable better comparison of products and reduce consumer confusion, only sustainability labels based on official certification schemes or registered as certification marks or established by public authorities would be allowed in the future. M