Greenwashing: What Changes on 27 September 2026

I. Background

Directive (EU) 2024/825, aimed at empowering consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and better information, was adopted on 28 February 2024.

It mainly amends two European texts: Directive 2005/29/EC on unfair commercial practices and Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights, in order to strengthen the rules applicable to certain environmental and social claims as well as to the information provided to consumers.

Member States were required to adopt and publish the national measures necessary for transposition by 27 March 2026 at the latest. These measures must apply from 27 September 2026.

In France, the transposition of the directive still requires particular attention. In May 2026, the European Commission initiated proceedings against several Member States, including France, for failure to notify complete transposition of the directive. The final content of national provisions must therefore be monitored.

The directive responds in particular to a finding by the European Commission: according to a 2020 study, 53.3% of the environmental claims examined provided vague, misleading or unfounded information, and 40% were not backed by verifiable evidence.

II. Who is Concerned?

The directive mainly concerns traders in their commercial practices aimed at consumers.

It is of particular relevance to companies that communicate to European consumers about the environmental, social or circularity characteristics of their products or services, or about their own environmental or social performance.

III. What is the Subject Matter?

The new rules cover environmental or social claims used in a commercial context.

The notion of an environmental claim is particularly broad. It can arise from text, but also from graphic representations or symbols, labels, brand names or product names, that state or suggest to the consumer that the product has a positive or zero impact on the environment or is less harmful than other products.

Thus, a green leaf, a water drop or other graphic elements may, depending on their combination and context, contribute to creating an implicit environmental claim.

Companies must therefore review all of their consumer-facing communications: brand and product names, logos, labels, marketing and advertising materials, websites, social media and packaging.

IV. Which Practices Are Prohibited in All Circumstances?

Several environmental communication practices are added to the list of commercial practices deemed unfair in all circumstances. The prohibited practices are:

• Displaying a sustainability label that is not based on a certification scheme or that has not been established by a public authority.
• Making a generic environmental claim, such as "eco-friendly," "green," "environmentally friendly," "good for the climate" or an equivalent wording, where the trader cannot demonstrate recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to the claim.
• Presenting an environmental claim about an entire product, a product category or a company's whole business, when the claim in fact concerns only one specific aspect of the product or activity.
• Claiming, on the basis of greenhouse gas emissions offsetting, that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive impact on the environment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.
• Presenting as a distinctive feature of the offer a requirement imposed by law on all products or traders concerned.

V. Which Practices Are Assessed Case by Case?

Not all environmental or social claims are prohibited. The rationale behind this regulation is that every claim must be verifiable. In practice, evidence is therefore needed that can genuinely be linked to a given product.

Some practices are therefore not automatically prohibited, but may be considered unfair where they are likely to mislead the consumer or distort their economic behaviour.

These include in particular:

• Presentations likely to mislead about the environmental, social or circularity characteristics of a product, notably its durability, reparability or recyclability;
• Certain claims about the future environmental performance of a company or product where they are not based on sufficiently clear, objective, public and verifiable commitments;
• Environmental claims that give an overall impression more favourable than the actual characteristics of the product or activity justify;
• Environmental, social or circularity information provided through certain comparison services, where essential information about the method and the products compared is not provided.

VI. Future Environmental Commitments: Stricter Rules

Commitments such as "carbon neutral by 2050" or "50% reduction in our emissions by 2030" will need to be backed by sufficiently precise evidence.

The directive targets in particular situations where a claim about future environmental performance rests on a commitment without a detailed and realistic implementation plan, without measurable, time-bound targets, or without the resources needed to achieve it.

VII. Not to Be Confused with the "Green Claims Directive"

Directive (EU) 2024/825 (EmpCo) must be distinguished from the European Green Claims proposal.

The EmpCo Directive mainly strengthens consumer law by amending European rules on unfair commercial practices and consumer information. It also leaves each Member State the possibility of introducing tougher fines for misleading environment-related commercial practices.

The EmpCo Directive therefore does not, on its own, constitute a general regime of prior authorisation of environmental claims. That work falls under a separate legislative process.

VIII. In Practice

To prepare for the new framework applying on 27 September 2026, companies can in particular:

• Audit their environmental communications: advertising, website, social media, packaging, labels, product and collection names, and other consumer-facing materials.
• Verify each claim: identify precisely what is stated or suggested and determine whether the company holds sufficiently specific, verifiable and relevant evidence to support it.
• Check the labels used: verify their legal basis, certification scheme and applicable monitoring arrangements.
• Document future commitments: keep action plans, interim targets, indicators, resources allocated and verification evidence demonstrating the credibility of announced commitments.
• Ensure consistency of messages across all communication channels so that an overall presentation does not give a more favourable impression than the actual characteristics of the product or activity.
• Set up internal processes to verify and document environmental and social claims before they are published.
• Raise awareness among marketing, product, communication, sales and legal teams of the new rules, in order to build compliance into campaign design from the outset.

Next Steps

27 September 2026 marks the application of the new rules stemming from Directive (EU) 2024/825 in the Member States.

In France, however, the late transposition of the European directive must be followed closely in order to identify the applicable national provisions.

Enforcement is also already a reality. In 2023 and 2024, the DGCCRF (the French consumer protection authority) inspected more than 3,000 establishments as part of the fight against greenwashing. More than 15% showed serious breaches. These inspections resulted in particular in more than 430 injunctions, more than 70 administrative fines and criminal reports, and more than 500 warnings.

Compliance is therefore not limited to a simple check of existing communication materials. It requires being able to identify, justify and document the environmental and social claims used with consumers.

Companies should therefore prepare for the 27 September 2026 deadline by carrying out a structured review of their communications and internal validation processes.