The European Parliament position and amendments were voted on 12thMarch and the draft Directive is now under discussion in Councill and the Directive will only be adopted under the new Parliament and Commission after the June European elections. The proposal concerns all “environmental claims” which were defined in Directive 2024/825 (February 2024), modifying 2005/29/EC, and covers “any message or representation which is not mandatory … in any form, including text, pictorial, graphic or symbolic representation, … which states or implies that a product, product category, brand or trader has a positive or zero impact on the environment or is less damaging to the environment … or has improved its impact over time”. The proposed Green Claims directive would require any such claim to be factually substantiated, subject to verification by Member States. Substantiation would have to be based on recognised scientific evidence, with a life-cycle perspective covering all significant environmental impacts, environmental performance would have to be shown to be better than legal requirements. The Directive does not define one single evaluation method and does not apply to labelling under EU regulations (EU Ecolabel, Organic Farming Regulation, EMAS, future EU carbon certification). Very small companies may be exempted.
European Parliamentary Research Service briefing document “'Green claims' directive. Protecting consumers from greenwashing” HERE
European Consultation proposal for a Directive “on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims Directive)”, 23rd March 2023, COM(2023) 166 final.