Green Claims

For years, sustainability and environmental aspects have become increasingly important in society. This is also true in advertising for products, but also for companies, as is shown by corporate sustainability reporting and sustainability ratings by private rating agencies.

‘Green claims’ is an expression used to summarise all environmentally related statements used in advertising or marketing texts and give the impression that a company, product or service is environmentally friendly.

For years we have supported and advised our clients in industry and commerce on the legally compliant use of green claims. In particular, we have advised on designing advertising and image campaigns with environmental claims and on promoting green claims using environmental quality labels and environmental seals, as well as on sustainability ratings. Our experience includes

advising an international dairy company on green claims for sustainable packaging, as well as advising;
a German carmaker on aspects of fair trading law in connection with the EU Taxonomy Regulation;
an international clothing company on the use of a certification mark for organic cotton;
an international financial institution on avoiding misleading information on sustainable financial products;
an international discounter on an environmental advertising campaign with a celebrity testimonial;
an international fashion label on the design and actual implementation of sustainability communication;
an international manufacturer of children’s toys on the design of the product packaging and the use of various green claims; and
a sustainability rating agency in connection with sustainability ratings criticised for being misleading.

The requirements for legally compliant use of green claims are constantly evolving. Based on the current legal situation according to fair trading law, every single statement on environmental friendliness must make clear what environmental advantage is being highlighted to avoid the risk of misleading consumers by using vague statements about green credentials. Also, many green claims like ‘climate-neutral’, ‘climate-friendly’, ‘environmentally neutral’, ‘environmentally friendly’, ‘eco-friendly’, ‘carbon-neutral’, ‘sustainable’, ‘recyclable’, ‘compostable’ or even ‘ocean-friendly’ have no clear or standardised meaning, and the German courts differ on the significance the public attributes to these green claims. The resulting legal uncertainty arises not only in Germany but in the whole European single market. This has brought the European legislators onto the scene: The Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (EmpCo), which has been in force since 26 March 2024, and the EU’s planned Green Claims Directive, which was adopted by the European Parliament on 12 March and is awaiting approval by the European Council, are now intended to create uniform standards throughout Europe on obligations to provide information and on the verifiability of environmentally related advertising.

The draft of the Green Claims Directive provides for a much stricter regime and correspondingly stricter sanction tools compared to the current law. In future, companies would have to undergo compliance procedures before being allowed to advertise using environmental statements like ‘environmentally friendly’, ‘eco’, ‘green’, ‘climate-neutral’ or ‘carbon-neutral’. There is still the unresolved issue of advertising with green certification marks, for which new requirements are to be introduced. But it’s already clear that companies will have to consider the new rules very soon when planning their future product and advertising strategy. Breaching these rules will result in significant fines and confiscation of the commercial turnover generated from the advertised products.