EU: MEPs adopt new law banning greenwashing and misleading product information
Parliament has given its final green light to a directive that will improve product labelling and ban the use of misleading environmental claims.
The directive adopted with 593 votes in favour, 21 against and 14 abstentions 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.
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.
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.
Additionally, the directive will ban claims that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive impact on the environment because of emissions offsetting schemes.