Companies will no longer be allowed to promote their products or services using only general labels such as “eco-friendly” or “green” without adequately substantiating such claims. In Czechia, the changes will be incorporated into national law through amendments to the Consumer Protection Act and the Civil Code, which are currently before the Chamber of Deputies.
“Combating such misleading claims is important to protect consumers from false information, support genuinely sustainable products and ensure a fair market,” Vladimír Kočí of the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, explained at the ESG Meetup – Reporting & Auditing conference in autumn 2024.
The new EU rules addressing this issue entered into force in 2024, and the requirements will begin to apply on 27 September this year. “Thanks to these new rules, consumers will now receive answers to questions such as: ‘Is the product I want to buy genuinely sustainable?’, ‘Can I choose a product designed to last?’ and ‘Is the environmental claim displayed on the product reliable?’ It is great news for every consumer that they can play a part in the green transition,” former European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said.
- A European Union directive is a legislative act of the EU.
- A directive is a specific instrument for harmonising the laws of Member States, particularly in areas where the EU has only non-exclusive powers.
- Alongside regulations and legislative decisions, directives are one of the three main types of EU legislation. They are addressed directly to the Member States – usually all of them, but they may be addressed to only some of them.
- A directive is binding on each Member State to which it is addressed as regards the result to be achieved, whilst the choice of form and means is left to the national authorities.
- Once directives have been adopted, they provide Member States with a timetable for implementing the required outcome. Sometimes, a Member State’s legal system already complies with the required outcome, in which case that Member State is simply required to maintain the relevant legislation as it stands.
- More often than not, Member States’ legislation needs to be amended (a process known as transposition) in order for a directive to be properly implemented, which happens in 99 per cent of cases.
- If a Member State fails to adopt the required legislation, or if that legislation does not fully comply with the requirements of the directive, the European Commission may bring legal proceedings against that Member State before the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Source: EU, Wikipedia
What exactly falls under the definition of greenwashing? According to the European Parliament’s website, it is the practice of creating a false impression about a product’s environmental impact or benefits, which may mislead consumers. The United Nations (UN) also describes greenwashing as a major obstacle to tackling climate change because it undermines credible efforts to reduce emissions.
Greenwashing can take various forms. According to the UN, one tactic is for a company to claim that it is on track to reduce its polluting emissions to zero when it has no credible plan for achieving that goal. Other examples include using misleading labels such as “green” or “eco-friendly”, which can easily be misinterpreted, or discussing a product’s sustainability in isolation from the company’s broader activities. A company may, for instance, promote a garment made from recycled materials while failing to mention that it is produced in a factory that pollutes the air or nearby waterways.
Kočí describes such cases as “the concealment method”. “For example, a manufacturer highlights one positive environmental aspect while concealing another, negative one,” he explained. Energy-efficient electronics may contain hazardous materials, for instance, or a product may be made from sustainably sourced wood while the environmental costs of transporting it go unmentioned. Some companies also like to use irrelevant claims. One example is a spray labelled as free of CFCs, even though these substances have already been banned.
No more greenwashing. Companies will no longer be able to label products as eco-friendly ‘just like that’, the European Parliament has approved
One of the aims of greenwashing is to improve a company’s public image. This is also linked to changes in consumer behaviour. “An increasing number of consumers care about the environmental impact of their purchasing behaviour, and companies are adapting their business models accordingly,” states the explanatory memorandum to the amendment intended to transpose the directive into Czech law.
Several surveys offer an indication of Czech society’s attitudes towards sustainability, although their findings vary depending on the sector concerned. For example, a recently published survey conducted by NMS Market Research for Raiffeisenbank found that roughly half of Czechs consider whether their money is being invested in environmentally friendly and socially responsible companies. At the same time, however, they do not want an emphasis on sustainability to reduce their investment returns.
Other findings have highlighted a gap between what people say they want and how they actually shop. One example is a survey conducted this year by the STEM analytical institute. A total of 64 per cent of respondents strongly or somewhat agreed that tackling the effects of climate change requires people in Czechia to fundamentally change their approach to consumption and to purchasing clothing and other goods. Just under 40 per cent said they considered the environmental impact of clothing production when deciding what to buy: six per cent strongly agreed with the statement and 32 per cent somewhat agreed.
At the same time, only three per cent of respondents cited environmentally friendly production as one of the four most important considerations when buying clothes. For a significantly larger proportion of respondents, factors such as price, appearance, quality and material were more important.
Although sustainability may not be a major factor in Czechs’ actual purchasing behaviour, the data suggest that a substantial proportion of the population takes an interest in the issue. “Surveys have consistently shown that more than 80 per cent of people would like to behave sustainably. We are often unwilling to pay extra for ‘sustainability’, yet our purchasing decisions are influenced by whether a product is presented as sustainable,” an article on the Ekonews website states.
Many companies are aware of this trend, which has led to a proliferation of environmental claims on the market. However, these claims are not always substantiated and may therefore mislead consumers and influence them to make purchases they would not otherwise have made. According to the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, inspections carried out in 2014 and 2020 found that more than half of environmental claims about products across the European Union were vague, misleading or unsupported.
Greenwashing cases have already reached the courts in several EU member states. France has had a law allowing greenwashing to be penalised since 2021. The first ruling under the legislation came in October last year, when a French civil court found that energy company TotalEnergies had misled consumers through an advertising campaign that breached the law. In the 2021 campaign, the company primarily featured wind and solar power plants and claimed that it would achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, which the court found misleading.
The court ordered the company to pay EUR 8,000 in damages to each of the three NGOs that brought the case, as well as a further €15,000 in total to cover their legal costs.
A French court has, for the first time, penalised a company for ‘greenwashing’ (in Czech)
Last spring, prosecutors in Frankfurt, Germany, fined asset manager DWS EUR 25 million. The company had publicly claimed to be a leader in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing and said that ESG was “an integral part of its DNA”. Investigators, however, found that these statements did not reflect reality.
The transport company FlixBus was also fined by a German court last year after the court found that it had falsely advertised its services in Belgium as “the most environmentally friendly form of transport”.
Dopravní společnost FlixBus dostala loni pokutu také od německého soudu, který dospěl k závěru, že své služby v Belgii nepravdivě propagovala jako „nejekologičtější způsob dopravy“.
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The rules due to apply across the EU from 27 September are not entirely new in terms of consumer protection. The Ekonews website pointed out, for example, that for a product to be labelled “organic”, it must meet strict requirements set out in a 2018 EU regulation. The regulation establishes uniform rules governing agricultural practices, certification requirements and oversight of the organic production system across the European Union.
Claims that a product is “beneficial to health” have also long been subject to regulation. In this case, the EU regulation on nutrition and health claims requires scientific evidence and prior authorisation before such claims can be used in marketing. In both cases, claims must therefore be supported by evidence and certification before appearing on product packaging, according to Ekonews.
The 2024 directive addressing greenwashing amends two existing directives and aims to strengthen consumer rights, including in this area. “The two directives are being amended to prevent practices involving, in particular, so-called greenwashing and the premature obsolescence of products, as well as to provide consumers with better information about products’ sustainability and repairability,” states the explanatory memorandum to the proposed Czech legislation.
According to Mikuláš Novotný of the legal department at the consumer organisation dTest, the Consumer Protection Act already prohibits unfair and misleading commercial practices. It can therefore be used to penalise not only false claims, including environmental ones, but also statements that are technically true yet create a misleading overall impression through the way they are presented. “The unauthorised use of an existing quality label or a false claim that a product has obtained certification or approval is already regarded as a misleading practice under the current legislation,” he explained.
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However, the current law does not define environmental claims as a separate category or establish specific rules for many forms of greenwashing. “Such claims must therefore currently be assessed under the general rules governing unfair commercial practices, including whether they may mislead consumers and influence their purchasing decisions,” Novotný added.
What, then, will the changes involve? “Businesses are already required to be able to substantiate all their claims, including environmental ones. However, the rules governing the display of sustainability labels and the use of general environmental claims will be tightened. Put simply, such claims should no longer be communicated to consumers unless they are supported by credible evidence,” the Ministry of Industry and Trade wrote.
While the amendment to the Consumer Protection Act will primarily tighten the rules against unfair commercial practices, the amendment to the Civil Code aims to expand information requirements concerning the repairability of products and the availability of spare parts. Both legislative changes form part of a single bill, which the lower house sent to the final stage of approval at the end of June.
The new rules will allow consumers to request that products be repaired (in Czech)
The amendment to the Consumer Protection Act introduces several changes. For example, businesses should no longer make claims such as bottled water being gluten-free or a sheet of paper containing no plastic. The amendment prohibits references to benefits that are irrelevant to the product or service being promoted and do not arise from any of its characteristics.
Environmental claims about future environmental performance will also be prohibited unless they are supported by clear, objective, publicly available and verifiable commitments set out in a detailed and realistic implementation plan and verified by an independent third-party expert.
According to the Právní Prostor website, companies will therefore no longer be able to claim, for example, that they “will be climate-neutral by 2030” without evidence. “Such claims must be measurable, supported by a detailed implementation plan and regularly verified by independent experts. Overall, a clear, objective, publicly available and verifiable commitment is required,” the article explains.
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An environmental claim can be defined as any voluntary statement—one not required by law—addressed to consumers about the environmental impact of a product or service. It may appear in advertising, on packaging or in another form of commercial communication.
Such a claim typically states or implies that a product or service has a positive or neutral environmental impact, is less harmful to the environment than other products or services, or has improved its environmental performance over time. Environmental claims can be divided into several categories, as illustrated below.
Another significant change is the amendment of the annex containing a list of commercial practices that are considered unfair and prohibited under all circumstances. The current list contains 27 practices, and the legislation would increase the number to 39. “These 12 additional practices are primarily intended to eliminate greenwashing and the premature obsolescence of products,” the explanatory memorandum states.
An unfair commercial practice is one that may influence a consumer’s economic behaviour—for example, their decision to purchase a product as a result of material information being withheld or misleading information being provided. In other words, if the consumer had been given the relevant information, or if the information provided had not been misleading, they would probably have made a different decision. Specific practices that are always considered unfair—whether misleading or aggressive—are listed in the annexes to the Consumer Protection Act.
Sources: Ministry of Industry and Trade, Czech Trade Inspection Authority
The use of sustainability labels that are not based on a certification scheme or established by public authorities will therefore be prohibited. Businesses will no longer be allowed to present consumers with labels that cannot be substantiated in this way. The Enviweb website explains the rationale behind the change. Many companies use their own green logos, which at first glance may appear to provide independent confirmation of a product’s environmental credentials. However, consumers have no way of knowing whether the logo represents a credible certification or is merely a graphic element. The new rules are illustrated below.
Unsubstantiated general environmental claims will also be prohibited under all circumstances. Products will therefore no longer be described as “green”, “environmentally friendly” or “climate-friendly” unless such claims can be substantiated. According to Novotný, these claims will be permitted only if the trader can demonstrate a recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to the entire claim. “In practice, this may primarily involve meeting the relevant criteria for the EU Ecolabel or another officially recognised environmental label,” he added.
It will also be prohibited, for example, to claim that a product is made from recycled material if only its packaging is made from such material. Companies will not be permitted to make environmental claims that misleadingly appear to apply to an entire product or a company’s overall operations when they in fact relate only to a specific part.
Claims such as “climate-neutral”, “carbon-positive” or “climate-impact-free” will also be restricted when they are based solely on greenhouse gas emissions offsets. Companies will therefore not be allowed to describe a product as environmentally friendly merely on the basis of offsetting measures such as tree planting. Novotný added that, similarly, an airline will not be permitted to describe a flight as “climate-neutral” simply because it has purchased carbon credits. “Consumers may easily be given the impression that the product has no impact on the climate. In reality, however, only a proportion of the emissions generated may have been offset,” an article on the Enviweb website states.
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Only claims that do not mislead consumers into believing that a product performs better than is standard in the sector should be presented. “Businesses should therefore not present compliance with applicable legislation as a benefit or environmental feature of a product—for example, by stating that a product does not contain a particular substance when that substance is already prohibited by law for the product in question,” the explanatory memorandum states.
Enviweb points out that the changes outlined above do not mean that companies will be unable to discuss sustainability. However, they will have to be more specific in their communications. “Good environmental communication does not begin with a slogan, but with data. A company should know exactly what it has improved, how it measured that improvement and whether it can defend its claim to customers, business partners and regulators,” Iva Werbynská, director of the SYBA Packaging Institute, told the website. According to her, the changes will have a significant impact on packaging in particular.
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According to Novotný, the consumer organisation dTest believes that responsible retailers are already able to substantiate their claims, meaning the new rules should not lead to a disproportionate rise in their costs that would be passed on to consumers through higher prices. “At the same time, this could eliminate the competitive disadvantage they face in relation to businesses that have only pretended their products were environmentally friendly,” he added.
According to Novotný, attempts to circumvent the rules cannot be ruled out entirely, but the new legislation is broadly worded. “Inspections will take place retrospectively rather than through the prior approval of environmental claims. The supervisory authority will be able to require traders to provide evidence that their claims are accurate,” he explained. He added that no new specific fine for greenwashing is to be introduced. “The newly defined cases will be penalised as unfair commercial practices under the existing sanctions regime, which allows for fines of up to CZK 5 million (approximately EUR 200,000) in a standard domestic case,” he clarified.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade, whose website provides further information on the measures, said that both the European Commission and EU member states recognise that ensuring timely compliance with the new rules may be difficult for businesses in certain situations. This applies particularly to products placed on the market in accordance with the existing rules before the new legislation takes effect, but which no longer comply with the new requirements.
Supervisory authorities may therefore, in the initial phase following the entry into force of the rules, focus, for example, on environmental claims made online, or they may take into account practical constraints preventing businesses from ensuring compliance with the new requirements. “Practical constraints include, for example, packaging cycles, stock levels, previously placed production orders, dependencies within the supply chain, product shelf life and the feasibility of corrective measures. These factors should be assessed on a case-by-case basis,” explains the Ministry.
According to the Ministry, supervisory authorities should also refrain from imposing disproportionate measures that could lead, for example, to the destruction of ‘non-compliant products’. For this reason, amongst others, the Chamber of Deputies could, at the third reading, amend the bill – on the proposal of the Economic Committee – to include a transitional provision for products already on the market that do not meet the new requirements.
These products could be granted a two-year exemption and would be treated as if they complied with the rules. The measure is intended to prevent significant financial losses that would affect the competitiveness of Czech companies as a result of the disposal of high-quality and safe products. These could include food, hygiene products, nappies and certain cosmetic products.
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An article written by Jáchym Novotný (CT), initially published on 20 August 2026, 06:00 (CEST)