The Green Claims Directive is now on hold and is likely to be scrapped. What’s the current situation with anti-greenwash legislation from the European Union?
The Green Claims Directive is facing uncertainty after what should have been the last push to get it into law. Negotiations on the final version have been going on since the start of the year and we were expecting an agreement in June 2025. Instead, negotiations were suspended and the European Commission said it was intending to withdraw its proposal. It is very unusual for discussions to collapse at such a late stage.
Now, according to media outlet Table.Briefings, the Danish Council Presidency has given up negotiations, effectively abandoning efforts to reach a majority agreement. While its fate isn’t 100% sealed, this looks like another nail in the coffin for the Green Claims Directive.
The point of the Directive, first proposed in 2023, was to establish a clear legal framework for businesses to make claims about the environment. So claims like “greener than the competitors” or “wildlife-friendly” would need to be backed by robust, scientific evidence, and there would need to be independent third-party verification of such claims.
The sticking point was political opposition describing it as “overly complex” and an administrative burden.
But the Green Claims Directive isn’t the only, or even the main, EU greenwashing law. The fight against greenwash is essential to two of the European Union’s core functions:
- Environmental protection, sustainable growth and the transition to a low-carbon economy
- Protecting consumers and giving them the information they need to make buying choices that benefit them
If you are operating in the EU, it’s important to see the Green Claims Directive in the context of existing and forthcoming legislation around the same aims.
Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD)
The UCPD has been in force since 2005, with a few updates along the way. It’s fundamentally about tackling misleading claims (including misleading omissions) and aggressive or unethical commercial practices. This includes so-called “inertia selling”, like subscriptions that auto-renew without telling you.
The Green Claims Directive was originally intended as an amendment to this older directive, because false green claims are unfair to customers and restrict meaningful consumer choice.
Empowering consumers for the green transition (2022/0092)
This directive:
- was adopted in January 2024 with strong support
- needs to be transposed into national law by March 2026
- needs to be applied by September 2026
Empowering consumers for the green transition was intended to complement the Green Claims Directive. Its aim is to support more sustainable consumption through “better information”. “Better” doesn’t necessarily mean saying more about a product; it might also mean removing claims that are misleading despite being technically true. (For example, describing a bag of frozen peas as “vegetarian” could be misleading because of the implication that your competitors’ peas aren’t.)
This directive is also designed to fight misinformation that leads to unnecessary purchases – for example, when printers flash a warning that the ink cartridge is running out to encourage you to buy more, but there’s actually plenty left.
The UK landscape
The UK also has extensive legislation to protect consumers, of which the main one is the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The most significant new development is probably the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. This doesn’t contain any specific provision to fight greenwashing, because this is covered by the provision around “misleading practices”. But, it does give the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) new powers to act without taking companies to court. Companies making misleading environmental claims (e.g. vague “eco-friendly” or “sustainable” claims without evidence) can be fined up to 10% of global turnover.
In addition to this, the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) has rules on the environmental claims that businesses can make. This requires a “high level of substantiation” for comparative claims (like saying your product is “greener” than the competition).
UK rules will keep evolving as our regulations diverge from the EU’s. In October 2025, two clauses about energy labelling were removed from the CAP rules because they were designed to be read in conjunction with EU legislation that has now moved on.
Resources
For more information, the CMA’s the “Green Claims Code” is a handy checklist to help UK businesses comply with consumer protection law on environmental claims.
The Advertising Standards Authority also offers a free copy advice service, to help you ensure your ad, website and social media copy is greenwash-compliant.