European Parliament has given its final green light to a directive that will improve product labelling and ban the use of misleading environmental claims.
The new crackdown on greenwashing was adopted by MEPs today seeking to protect consumers from misleading marketing practices and help them make better purchasing decisions, adding problematic marketing habits and the early obsolescence of goods to the EU list of banned commercial practices.
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 substantial proof.
Additionally, the directive will ban claims that a product has a neutral, reduced, or positive impact on the environment because of emissions offsetting schemes.
The new law will introduce a reinforced focus on product durability. In the 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.
Rules will also ban unfounded durability claims (for example saying a washing machine will last for 5,000 washing cycles if this is not true under normal conditions), prompts to replace consumables earlier than necessary (as is often the case with printer ink), and presenting goods as repairable when they are not.
“This law will change the everyday lives of Europeans. We will step away from throwaway culture, make marketing more transparent, and fight premature obsolescence of goods,” said the European Parliament rapporteur, Biljana Borzan.
“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.”
Once the new law is published in the Official Journal, European member states will have 24 months to transpose it into national law.
