MEPs pass greenwashing and misleading product directive

The European Parliament has given its final green light to a directive that aims to improve product labelling and ban the use of misleading environmental claims.

The directive was adopted this week with 593 votes in favour, 21 against and 14 abstentions. It seeks to protect consumers from misleading marketing practices and help them make better purchasing choices.

“To achieve this, a number of problematic marketing habits related to greenwashing and the early obsolescence of goods will be added to the EU list of banned commercial practices,” said the parliament.

“Most importantly, the new rules aim to make product labelling clearer and more trustworthy by banning the use of general environmental claims like ‘environmentally friendly’, ‘natural’, ‘biodegradable’, ‘climate neutral’ or ‘eco’ without proof,” it added.

“The use of sustainability labels will also now be regulated, given the confusion caused by their proliferation and failure to use comparative data. In the future, only sustainability labels based on official certification schemes or established by public authorities will be allowed in the EU,” continued the parliament.

The directive will also ban claims that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive impact on the environment because of emissions offsetting schemes.

Another important objective of the new law is to make producers and consumers focus more on the durability of goods. In future, guarantee information has to be more visible and a new, harmonised label will be created to give more prominence to goods with an extended guarantee period.

The new rules will also ban unfounded durability claims, prompts to replace consumables earlier than strictly necessary and presenting goods as repairable when they are not, said the European Parliament.

Its rapporteur Biljana Borzan said: “This law will change the everyday lives of all Europeans! We will step away from throwaway culture, make marketing more transparent and fight premature obsolescence of goods. People will be able to choose products that are more durable, repairable and sustainable thanks to reliable labels and advertisements. Most importantly, companies can no longer trick people by saying that plastic bottles are good because the company planted trees somewhere – or say that something is sustainable without explaining how. This is a big win for all of us!”

The directive now needs to receive final approval from the European Council, after which it will be published in the Official Journal and member states will have 24 months to transpose it into national law.

The new directive is intended to work together with the green claims directive, currently being discussed at committee stage in parliament. The upcoming green claims directive will be more specific and elaborate the conditions for using environmental claims in greater detail.