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Consumer Protection

EU Green Claims Directive: Substantiation

If you've ever described a product as "eco-friendly," "green," or "sustainable," you need to read this closely. The EU Green Claims Directive makes vague environmental claims illegal and requires every specific claim to be verified by an accredited third party before it can appear on a product, website, or advertisement.

The core principle is simple and brutal: any explicit environmental claim must be substantiated before publication, verified by a third party before marketing, and accessible to consumers at the point of sale. If you can't prove it, you can't say it.

What Is Greenwashing?

For the last decade, walking down the aisle of any supermarket or scrolling through an e-commerce store felt like walking through a forest. Everything was wrapped in green packaging, stamped with leaves, and boldly labeled "Eco-Friendly," "100% Natural," or "Climate Neutral."

But behind the green branding, the reality was often grim. That "ocean-bound plastic" bottle actually contained 5% recycled material. That "carbon-neutral" t-shirt relied on cheap, unverified tree-planting credits on the other side of the world. This practice is known as Greenwashing.