Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims Directive)
Date: 2023-03-22
Institutions: Directorate-General for Environment, European Commission
Subjects: advertising malpractice, consumer information, consumer law, eco-label, environmental impact, green economy, green marketing, greenwashing, labelling, sustainable product

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 22.3.2023  COM(2023) 166 final 2023/0085 (COD)  Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims Directive)  
 
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM 

1. 

CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 

In  March  2022  the  Commission  proposed  to  update  Union  consumer  law  to  ensure  that 
consumers are protected and to empower them to contribute actively to the green transition1. 
This  proposal  provides  more  specific  rules  (lex  specialis)  and  complements  the  proposed 
changes to the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive2 (lex generalis). Both proposals aim at 
tackling a common set of problems by implementing different elements of the same preferred 
policy package identified in the Impact Assessment published together with the initiative on 
empowering consumers for the green transition3. 

1.1. 

Reasons for and objectives of the proposal 

Role of consumers in accelerating the green transition  

 
In  the  European  Green  Deal4  the  Commission  committed  to  ensure  that  consumers  are 
empowered  to  make  better  informed  choices  and  play  an  active  role  in  the  ecological 
transition. More specifically, the European Green Deal sets out a commitment to tackle false 
environmental  claims  by  ensuring  that  buyers  receive  reliable,  comparable  and  verifiable 
information  to  enable  them  to  make  more  sustainable  decisions  and  to  reduce  the  risk  of 
‘green  washing’.  The  need  to  address  greenwashing  was  subsequently  set  as  a  priority  both 
under the New Circular Economy Action Plan5 and the New Consumer Agenda6. The recently 
adopted  Green  Deal  Industrial  Plan7  reiterates  the  need  to  allow  consumers  to  make  their 
choices  based  on  transparent  and  reliable  information  on  the  sustainability,  durability  and 
carbon footprint of the products, and highlights that market transparency is a tool facilitating 
uptake of technologically and environmentally superior net zero products. 

The European Parliament and the Council have called on the Commission to consider further 
action in the area. In December 2020, in its conclusions on making the recovery circular and 
green8,  the  Council  noted  its  appreciation  of  the  Commission’s  intention  to  ensure  the 
substantiation of environmental claims on the basis of environmental impacts along products’ 
life  cycles.  In  its  resolution  on  the  New  Circular  Economy  Action  Plan9,  the  European 
Parliament strongly supported the Commission’s intention to make proposals to regulate the 
use  of  environmental  claims  through  the  establishment  of  solid  and  harmonised  calculation 
methods covering the full value chain.  

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European  Commission,  Proposal  for  a  Directive  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  amending 
Directives 2005/29/EC and 2011/83/EU as regards empowering consumers for the green transition  through better 
protection  against  unfair  practices  and  better  information,  COM(2022)  143  final,  available  at:  https://eur-
lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52022PC0143&from=EN  
Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2005 concerning unfair business-
to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market and amending Council Directive 84/450/EEC, Directives 
97/7/EC,  98/27/EC  and  2002/65/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  and  Regulation  (EC)  No 
2006/2004  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  (Unfair  Commercial  Practices  Directive),  OJ  L  149, 
11.6.2005, p. 22–39, as amended. 
SWD(2022) 85 final; EUR-Lex - 52022SC0085 - EN - EUR-Lex (europa.eu)  
Communication  from  the  Commission  to  the  European  Parliament,  the  European  Council,  the  Council,  the 
European Economic and Social Committee of the Regions, The European Green Deal, COM(2019)640. 
COM(2020)98 final, 11 March 2020. 
COM(2020)696 final, 13 November 2020.  
COM(2023)62final, 1 February 2023. 
Council Conclusions, 14167/20. 
European Parliament resolution of 10 February 2021 on the New Circular Economy Action Plan (2020/2077(INI)) 

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Consumers want to be better informed on the environmental impacts of their consumption and 
make better choices. The requests of the Conference on the Future of Europe10 include a call 
for  more  transparency  as  regards  sustainability  and  environmental  footprint  of  products,  in 
particular in Proposal 5 on sustainable consumption, packaging and production and Proposal 
20 on Defining standards within and outside the EU in environmental policies. The proposal 
on environmental claims is the Commission’s reply to this call11.  

Completing  the  EU  legislative  framework  supporting  more  sustainable  consumption  will 
contribute  to  reaching  the  Sustainable  Development  Goal  12.6  to  encourage  companies, 
especially  large  and  transnational  companies,  to  adopt  sustainable  practices  and  to  integrate 
sustainability information into their reporting cycle’. 

Further  EU  action  in  this  area  will  also  have  a  positive  impact  on  global  value  chains 
involving production processes in third countries. As a result, it will incentivise third country 
companies to contribute to the green transition, in particular the businesses trading within the 
EU internal market. Moreover, multilateral cooperation will be fostered with third countries to 
ensure a good understanding of the new regulatory framework and its benefits. Additionally, 
sustainable  development  chapters  of  the  EU  bilateral  and  region-to-region  trade  agreements 
can create opportunities for cooperation in line with the overall EU objectives to increase the 
sustainability dimension of its trade policy. 

 

Barriers to boosting the potential of green markets in the EU through consumer 
empowerment 

In  spite  of  consumers’  willingness  to  contribute  to  a  greener  and  more  circular  economy  in 
their everyday lives12, their active and effective role in  this  green transition  is  hampered by 
barriers  to  making  environmentally  sustainable  consumption  choices  at  the  point  of  sale, 
notable  a  lack  of  trust  in  the  credibility  of  environmental  claims  and  the  proliferation  of 
misleading commercial practices related to the environmental sustainability of products.  
The  evidence  collected  to  support  the  impact  assessment3  accompanying  the  proposal  on 
empowering  consumers  for  the  green  transition,  which  also  accompanies  the  proposal  on 
environmental  claims  both  through  its  inception  impact  assessment13  and  its  public 
consultation14 together with an additional public consultation carried out in 202015, suggests 
that  misleading  practices,  such  as  greenwashing  and  lack  of  transparency  ad  credibility  of 
environmental  labels,  occur  at  various  stages  of  the  consumption  journey:  during  the 
advertising stage, the purchasing stage or during the use of the products.  

a)    Consumers  are  faced  with  the  practice  of  making  unclear  or  not  well-substantiated 
environmental claims (‘greenwashing’)  

The  proposal  on  empowering  consumers  for  the  green  transition  defines  an  environmental 
claim as any message or representation, which is not mandatory under Union law or national 
law,  including  text,  pictorial,  graphic  or  symbolic  representation,  in  any  form,  including 
labels,  brand  names,  company  names  or  product  names,  in  the  context  of  a  commercial 
communication, which states or implies that a product or trader has a positive or no impact on 

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Conference on the Future of Europe, Report on the final outcome, May 2022 
COM(2022)404final 
European Commission, Behavioural Study on Consumers’ engagement in the circular economy, 2018, p. 10. 
European Commission, Inception Impact Assessment: Empowering the consumer for the green transition, 2020. 
A  summary  of 
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12467-Empowering-the-consumer-for-the-
green-transition 
Environmental performance of products & businesses – substantiating claims (europa.eu) 

the  European  Commission’s  ’Have  your  Say’  website: 

is  available  via 

the  OPC 

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the  environment  or  is  less  damaging  to  the  environment  than  other  products  or  traders, 
respectively, or has improved their impact over time1. 
The Commission carried out two inventories of environmental claims: one in 201416 and one 
in  202017.  The  studies  looked  at  a  sample  of  150  environmental  claims  for  a  wide  range  of 
products  against  the  principles  of  the  Unfair  Commercial  Practices  Directive2  (UCPD): 
clarity,  unambiguity,  accuracy  and  verifiability.  The  2020  study  found  that  a  considerable 
share  of  environmental  claims  (53.3%)  provide  vague,  misleading  or  unfounded 
information  about  products’ environmental characteristics across the EU and across a wide 
range  of  product  categories.  The  2020  inventory  of  environmental  claims  also  analysed  the 
substantiation of such claims looking at their clarity, accuracy, and the extent to which they 
are substantiated with evidence that can be verified. The analysis found that  40% of claims 
were unsubstantiated. 

These results have also been confirmed by a sweep by the Consumer Protection Cooperation 
authorities  carried  out  in  November  202018.  Out  of  the  344  sustainability  claims  assessed, 
authorities  considered  that  in  over  half  of  the  cases  (57.5%),  the  trader  did  not  provide 
sufficient  elements  allowing  for  judgement  of  the  claim’s  accuracy.  In  many  cases, 
authorities had difficulties identifying whether the claim covered the whole product or only 
one  of  its  components  (50%),  whether  it  referred  to  the  company  or  only  certain  products 
(36%) and which stage of the products lifecycle it covered (75%)19.  

Moreover,  most  stakeholders  consulted  agreed  that  greenwashing  is  a  problem,  with  the 
noticeable  exception  of  industry  representatives.  More  than  half  encountered  misleading 
claims and expressed less trust in environmental statements and logos managed by companies 
or private entities19. In addition, most respondents to the targeted consultations indicated that 
consumers lack awareness of the environmental impacts of products because the information 
is not provided or not available20. 

In  general,  consumer  trust  in  environmental  claims  is  quite  low.  During  the  2020  open 
public  consultation15,  the  general  public  did  not  agree  with  the  statement  that  they  trust 
environmental statements on products (1.57/ 4.00)21. The level of trust was higher for claims 
on traders22, but still low (2.25/4.00).  

b)  Consumers are faced with the use of sustainability labels that are not always transparent 
and credible  

Environmental labels are a subset of environmental claims. The labels are in a form of a trust 
mark,  quality  mark  or  equivalent  setting  apart  and  promoting  a  product/process  or  business 
with reference to its environmental aspects. These labels are sometimes based on certification 
schemes (environmental  labelling schemes) which certify  that a product/process  or business 
meets the requirements set up by the scheme and monitor compliance.  

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Consumer Market Study on Environmental Claims for Non-Food Products, European Commission 2014. 
Environmental  claims  in  the  EU:  Inventory  and  reliability  assessment  Final  report,  European  Commission  2020. 
Available at https://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/smgp/pdf/2020_Greenclaims_inventory.zip 
2020 – sweep on misleading sustainability claims, Sweeps (europa.eu)  
Screening  of  websites 
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_269  
SWD(2022) 85 final, Annex 2, pp. 66 
Replies given on 1-5 Likert scales. These were converted into points to help consistent presentation and reflect well 
the  degree  of  agreement.  “Do  not  know”  replies  received  0  points,  “not  interested  at  all”  or  “not effective  at  all 
replies” 1 – at the other end of the scale, “very interested” or “always” replies received 4 point. 
A claim on a trader refers to any claim made by the trader on itself as an organisation as opposed to a claim made 
by the trader on one of its products (goods or services). 

‘greenwashing':  half  of  green  claims 

lack  evidence,  available  at: 

for 

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Environmental labels existing on the EU internal market are subject to different levels 
of  robustness,  supervision  and  transparency,  i.e.,  different  governance  models. 
Additional confusion is expected to be caused by an increasing number of ecolabels covering 
different  aspects,  adopting  different  operational  approaches  and  being  subject  to  different 
levels  of  scrutiny  (e.g.  the  openness  of  the  process  in  developing  them  or  the  level  and 
independence of auditing and verification)23. 

In the preparatory study to gather evidence on ways to empower consumers to play an active 
role in the green transition24, an assessment of 232 active ecolabels in the EU also examined 
their  verification  and  certification  aspects  and  concluded  that  almost  half  of  the  labels’ 
verification was either weak or not carried out. Moreover, consumers are not aware of the 
distinction between labels governed by third party  certification schemes and those based on 
“self-certifications”, i.e. not verified by any third party.  
In  the  consultation  for  the  inception  impact  assessment24  and  during  the  targeted 
consultations, the proliferation of sustainability labels and logos was also identified as an 
important  and  persistent  problem  across  the  EU  by  stakeholders  from  most  stakeholder 
groups.  Similarly,  in  the  open  public  consultation,  over  a  quarter  (27%)  of  participants 
selected  "the  proliferation  and/or  lack  of  transparency/  understanding/reliability  of 
sustainability  logos/labels  on  products  and  services"  as  a  relevant  obstacle  to  empowering 
consumers for the green transition15. 

This  proliferation  of  labels  combined  with  their  varied  governance  models  implies  that 
producers and retailers can apply a variety of strategies in opting for a specific sustainability 
label. Very often, this also translates into companies displaying various labels to vouch for the 
sustainability of their products. 34% of businesses identified the "the proliferation and/or 
lack  of  transparency  /  understanding  /  reliability  of  sustainability logos  /  labels"  as  an 
obstacle15.  Indeed,  companies  that  make  the  effort  to  adhere  to  or  develop  reliable 
environmental  labelling  schemes  are  disadvantaged  compared  to  companies  that  use 
unreliable environmental labels as consumers often cannot tell the difference.  This issue has 
been amplified by the rapid emergence of a number of (private/voluntary) labelling schemes 
at  national  /  Member  State  level,  making  comparability  across  products  increasingly 
difficult for consumers.   

Feedback from stakeholders shows a particularly  strong support for EU action  capable of 
bringing  about  a  common  approach  to  the  provision  of  sustainability  information  to 
consumers,  reinforce  the  level-playing  field  for  business  and  to  limit  the  proliferation  of 
labels and misleading environmental claims on the Single Market14. 

Companies  that  offer  truly  sustainable  products  are  disadvantaged  compared  to  those 
that  do  not.  They  also  risk  unnecessarily  high  compliance  costs  as  EU  countries  start  to 
introduce different national solutions to address the problems described above25.  

1.2. 

Consistency with existing policy provisions in the policy area 

 

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The EU initiative to empower consumers for the green transition 

Preparatory study to gather evidence on ways to empower consumers to play an active role in the green transition, 
October 2021. Available at Proposal for a Directive on empowering consumers for the green transition and annex 
(europa.eu) 
European  Commission,  Inception  Impact  Assessment:  Empowering  the  consumer  for  the  green  transition,  2020- 
overview of consultations in Annex 2 of the Impact Assessment, page 69. 
More  on  consequences  of  the  problems  for  consumers  market  and  environment  included  in  Annex  12  of 
SWD(2022)85 final   

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The  Unfair  Commercial  Practices  Directive  regulates  misleading  practices  and  misleading 
omissions with general provisions that can be applied to environmental claims in business-to-
consumer transactions when they negatively affect consumers’ transactional decisions. It calls 
on  Member  States’  consumer  protection  authorities  to  assess  these  practices  case-by-case 
following  a  transactional  decision  test  (case-by-case  assessment)26.  It  also  establishes  a 
blacklist  of  commercial  practices27  that  shall  in  all  circumstances  be  regarded  as  unfair 
without the need for case-by-case assessment. Non-compliance with the requirements of the 
directive is  pursued by the consumer submitting  a claim  or  a competent  authority  acting on 
own initiative. 
The  proposal  to  amend  the  Unfair  Commercial  Practices  Directive1  tackles  in  part  the 
problems  listed  in  Section  1.1  (“greenwashing”  and  untransparent  sustainability  labels).  It 
implements a series of measures on environmental claims resulting from the preferred policy 
options, including: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

The  list  of  product  characteristics  about  which  a  trader  should  not  deceive  a 
consumer  in  Article  6(1)  of  Directive  2005/29/EC  is  amended  to  include 
‘environmental or social impact, ‘durability’ and ‘reparability’.  

The list of actions which are to be considered misleading if they cause or are likely 
to cause the average consumers to take a transactional decision that they would not 
have otherwise taken, in Article 6(2) of Directive 2005/29/EC, is amended to include 
‘making  an  environmental  claim  related  to  future  environmental  performance 
without  clear, objective  and  verifiable  commitments  and 
targets  and  an 
independent monitoring system. 

list  of  commercial  practices  which  are  considered  unfair 

The 
in  all 
circumstances,  in  Annex  I  of  Directive  2005/29/EC,  is  extended  to  four  practices 
associated with greenwashing: 

 

Displaying a sustainability label  which is  not  based on a certification scheme 
or not established by public authorities.  

  Making  a  generic  environmental  claim for  which the  trader is  not able  to 
the 

demonstrate recognised excellent environmental performance relevant 
claim. 

to 

  Making an environmental claim about the entire product when it concerns only 

a certain aspect of the product. 

 

Presenting requirements imposed by law on all products in the relevant product 
category on the Union market as a distinctive feature of the trader’s offer. 

The proposal on empowering consumers for the green transition thus addresses a wide range 
of  practices,  products  and  sales  methods  in  a  more  generalised  way.  It  provides  important 
safeguards to protect consumers from misleading environmental claims and unreliable labels. 

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Article  6  and  7  of  the  Directive  2005/29/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  11  May  2005 
concerning  unfair  business-to-consumer  commercial  practices  in  the  internal  market  and  amending  Council 
Directive  84/450/EEC,  Directives  97/7/EC,  98/27/EC  and  2002/65/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 
Council and Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council (‘Unfair Commercial 
Practices Directive’) (OJ L 149, 11.6.2005, p. 22). 
Annex I of the Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2005 concerning 
unfair  business-to-consumer  commercial  practices  in  the  internal  market  and  amending  Council  Directive 
84/450/EEC,  Directives  97/7/EC,  98/27/EC  and  2002/65/EC  of  the  European Parliament  and  of  the  Council  and 
Regulation  (EC)  No  2006/2004  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  (‘Unfair  Commercial  Practices 
Directive’) (OJ L 149, 11.6.2005, p. 22). 

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 

Other  EU  acts  encouraging 
environmental information 

sustainable  consumption  by  providing 

On top of the consumer protection framework, there is an existing EU legislative framework 
that deals with the provision of environmental information, sets methodological requirements 
on  measuring  and  calculating  environmental  impacts,  such  as  the  EU  certification 
methodologies  for  carbon  removals  developed  under  the  Carbon  Removals  Certification 
Regulation28  (once  adopted),  or  on  information  and  labels  on  the  environmental  impacts, 
aspects  or  performance  of  a  product  or  trader.  For  instance,  The  Ecodesign  Directive29 
establishes  a  framework  for  setting  mandatory  ecodesign  requirements  for  energy-related 
products to encourage their energy performance and circular design and foster new business 
models.  The  Commission  also  adopted  a  proposal  for  a  new  Ecodesign  for  Sustainable 
Products  Regulation30  in  March  2022  to  significantly  improve  the  circularity,  energy 
performance,  environmental  impacts  and  other  environmental  sustainability  aspects  for 
specific  priority  product  groups.  It  will  enable  the  setting  of  performance  and  information 
requirements for almost all categories of physical goods placed on the EU market. Under the 
Circular  economy  action  plan  and  product  policy,  some  other  proposals  made  by  the 
Commission include information requirements, for example under the proposed Regulations 
on marketing of construction products31 and on batteries and waste batteries32. 

In addition, there are legal acts concerning labels developed at the EU level, both mandatory 
and voluntary, such as the EU Ecolabel. Established in 1992, the EU Ecolabel is the official 
voluntary  label  for  environmental  excellence  of  products  in  the  EU  demonstrating  top 
performance.  The  EU  Ecolabel  Regulation33  lays  down  rules  for  the  establishment  and 
application of this voluntary scheme. Other related EU legislation on labels include the Eco-
Management  and  Audit  Scheme  (EMAS)34,  the  Regulations  on  the  organic  farming  label35, 
the energy labelling36 and the CE marking37.  

 

Completing the set of EU rules on environmental claims 

To continue to address the identified problem of greenwashing and unreliable environmental 
labels, the current framework could benefit from more specific requirements on unregulated 
claims, be it for specific product groups, specific sectors or for specific environmental impacts 
or  environmental  aspects.  This  proposal  on  substantiating  and  communicating 

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36 

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COM(2022) 672 final 
Directive  2009/125/EC  of  the  European  parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  21  October  2009  establishing  a 
framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy-related products, L 285/10 
COM(2022) 142 final  
Regulation  (EU)  No  305/2011  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  9  March  2011  laying  down 
harmonised conditions for the marketing of construction products and repealing Council Directive 89/106/EEC (OJ 
L 88, 4.4.2011, p. 5). 
COM/2020/798 final. 
Regulation  (EC)  No  66/2010  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  25  November  2009  on  the  Eu 
Ecolabel (OJ L 27, 30.1.2010, p. 1). 
Regulation  (EC)  No  1221/2009  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  25  November  2009  on  the 
voluntary  participation  by  organisations  in  a  Community  eco-management  and  audit  scheme  (EMAS),  repealing 
Regulation (EC) No 761/2001 and Commission Decisions 2001/681/EC and 2006/193/EC (OJ L 342, 22.12.2009, 
p. 1). 
Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production 
and labelling of organic products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007, OJ L 150, 14.6.2018, p. 1. 
Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2017 setting a framework for 
energy labelling and repealing Directive 2010/30/EU (OJ L 198, 28.7.2017, p. 1). 
Directive  2009/125/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  21  October  2009  establishing  a 
framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy-related products (recast) (OJ L 285, 31.10.2009, p. 
10). 

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environmental  claims  complements  as  lex  specialis  the  existing  set  of  EU  rules  on 
consumer  protection.  The  proposal  will  allow  to  implement  fully  the  preferred  policy 
options identified in the impact assessment, as described in Section 3.2.  

The key objectives of the proposal on environmental claims are thus to: 

– 

– 

– 

Increase  the  level  of  environmental  protection  and  contribute  to  accelerating  the 
green transition towards a circular, clean and climate neutral economy in the EU; 

Protect  consumers  and  companies  from  greenwashing  and  enable  consumers  to 
contribute  to  accelerating  the  green  transition  by  making  informed  purchasing 
decisions based on credible environmental claims and labels; 

Improve  the  legal  certainty  as  regards  environmental  claims  and  the  level  playing 
fields  on  the  internal  market,  boost  the  competitiveness  of  economic  operators  that 
make  efforts  to  increase  the  environmental  sustainability  of  their  products  and 
activities,  and  create  cost  saving  opportunities  for  such  operators  that  are  trading 
across borders. 

The  scope  of  this  proposal,  being  lex  specialis,  is  aligned  with  the  corresponding  lex 
generalis. The revised Unfair Commercial Practices Directive covers all voluntary business-
to-consumer  commercial  practices  before,  during  and  after  a  commercial  transaction  in 
relation to a product. The scope of this proposal covers the substantiation and communication 
of voluntary environmental claims. 

In the same way, the proposal on empowering consumers for the green transition deals with 
sustainability  labels  which  cover  environmental  or  social  aspects  or  both.  This  proposal  is 
however 
those  covering  predominantly 
labels  only, 
environmental aspects of a product or trader. 

to  environmental 

limited 

i.e. 

As mentioned, the proposal on environmental claims is meant to act as a safety net for all 
sectors  where  environmental  claims  or  labels  are  unregulated  at  EU  level.  It  does  not 
aim  to  change  existing  or  future  sectoral  rules.  To  the  contrary,  the  assessment  and 
communication requirements set out in other Union legislation will take precedence over the 
requirements set out in the proposal, and thus should be used to substantiate and communicate 
environmental claims in these specific areas. 

1.3. 

Consistency with other Union policies 

The  proposal  on  environmental  claims  supports  the  objectives  of  the  European  Green  Deal 
and  contributes  to  resolving  the  triple  crises  of  climate  change,  pollution,  and  biodiversity 
loss.  It  contributes  to  the  fight  against  greenwashing  that  was  identified  as  a  priority  in  the 
Commission’s  new  circular  economy  action  plan5  and  new  consumer  agenda6. the  proposal 
will  also  reinforce  overarching  strategies  such  as  the  zero  pollution  action  plan38  or  the 
biodiversity strategy for 203039 and complement strategies targeting specific sectors, such as 
the  Farm-to-Fork  strategy40,  or  issues,  such  as  the  calls  for  improving  water  efficiency  and 
reuse in the EU strategy on adaptation to climate change41. 

As  described,  this  proposal  for  a  directive  on  environmental  claims  and  the  proposal 
amending  the  Unfair  Commercial  Practices  Directive  jointly  establish  a  coherent  policy 
framework to help the Union in the green transition by transforming consumption patterns in 

38 
39 
40 
41 

https://ec.europa.eu/environment/strategy/zero-pollution-action-plan_en  
COM(2020) 380 final 
COM/2020/381 final. 
COM(2021) 82 

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a  more  sustainable  direction.  They  aim  to  contribute  to  a  greener  internal  market  by 
encouraging the reduction of the environmental footprint of products consumed in the Union. 
They will also contribute to reaching the objective of the European Climate Law of balancing 
greenhouse  gas  (GHG)  emissions  and  removals  within  the  Union  at  the  latest  by  2050  by 
tackling claims related to GHG emissions reductions and climate neutrality.   

2. 

2.1 

LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY 

Legal basis 

This proposal is based on Article 114 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union 
(TFEU),  which  applies  to  measures  that  aim  to  establish  or  ensure  the  functioning  of  the 
internal market, while taking as a base a high level of environmental protection.  

Different  requirements  imposed  by national  legislation  or  private  initiatives  regulating 
environmental claims create an unnecessary burden for companies when trading cross-
border, as they need to comply with different requirements in each country. This affects 
their capacity to operate in and take advantage of the internal market. At the same time, 
market  participants  have  difficulties  with  identifying  reliable  environmental  claims  and 
making optimal purchasing decisions on the internal market.  

The  proposal  therefore  aims  to  ensure  the  functioning  of  the  internal  market  for  economic 
actors operating in the internal market and consumers relying on environmental claims. The 
measures proposed in this Directive will increase the level of environmental protection, while 
leading to further harmonisation regarding the regulation of environmental claims, and would 
avoid  market  fragmentation  due  to  diverging  national  approaches  that  were  introduced  or 
would be introduced in the absence of rules at EU level.  
The  internal  market  dimension  of  reaching  the  environmental  objective  is  predominant  and 
therefore Article 114 remains the appropriate legal basis. 

2.2 

Subsidiarity (for non-exclusive competence)  

Putting in place a common set of rules within the EU internal market is essential to ensuring a 
level  playing  field  for  economic  operators,  If  Member  States  act  individually,  the  level  of 
environmental protection would remain suboptimal and there is a risk that competing different 
systems, based on different methods and approaches, would be used.  

The proposal on empowering consumers for the green transition  does not specify what 
the  companies  should  do  to  properly  substantiate  their  environmental  claims.  This  in 
turn can lead to significantly diverging approaches across the EU to substantiate claims. This 
would  fragment  the  internal  market  by  distorting  the  conditions  of  competition  and 
necessitating  the  amendment/modifications  of  the  claims  each  time  internal  borders  are 
crossed.  This  in  turn  brings  legal  uncertainty  and  raises  compliance  costs  as  well  as  unfair 
competition in the Single Market and undermines efficient market functioning.  

The  EU  is  well  placed  to  promote  further  harmonisation  of  methodological  requirements  to 
assess  the  environmental  impacts  of  products,  services  and  organisations  across  the  Single 
Market, relying on experiences of Member States and private initiatives in this area. The EU 
can bring an important added value, and further co-ordination would bring cost savings for 
governments and the private sector. 

Feedback  from  stakeholders  shows  a  particularly  strong  support  for  EU  action  capable  of 
bringing  about  a  common  approach  to  the  provision  of  sustainability  information  to 
consumers and to limit the proliferation of labels and misleading environmental claims. If 
Member States were to act individually and without a guiding framework, there is a high risk 

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to  end  up  with  many  competing  different  systems  leading  to  a  fragmented  internal  market, 
especially for cross-border services (for instance, digital services).  

EU action is justified and necessary, because a harmonised and well-functioning internal EU 
market  with  regards  to  environmental  claims  would  increase  the  level  of  environmental 
protection and set a level playing field for businesses operating in the EU. The proposal also 
alleviates  the  difficulties  faced  by  national  authorities  in  enforcing  the  existing  principle-
based  provisions  of  the  Unfair  Commercial  Practices  Directive  in  such  complex  areas  as 
misleading  environmental  claims.  Further  EU  coordination  brings  cost  savings  for  both 
governments  and  private  actors  involved,  as  well  as  strengthens  leverage  on  related  global 
processes, including global value chains. 

2.3 

Proportionality 

The  measures  in  the  proposal  do  not  go  beyond  what  is  necessary  to  enable  consumers  to 
make  informed  purchasing  decisions  and  promoting  sustainable  consumption,  based  on 
reliable and verified information.   

The proportionality of the general criteria for environmental claims used in marketing towards 
consumers  is  ensured  by  introducing  uniform  requirements  which  companies  should  follow 
when making such claims. This proposal does not require any specific assessment method for 
the substantiation of any particular environmental claims and relies upon general requirements 
that  generate  reliable  information  for  consumers.  The  proposal  will  also  provide  competent 
national  bodies  with  uniform  criteria.  This  will  help  them  assess  the  fairness  of  any 
environmental  claim,  providing  a  high  degree  of  legal  certainty  and  facilitating 
enforcement activities. It is also the result of thorough consideration of stakeholder input, in 
particular from businesses, including SMEs.   

The  proportionality  of  requirements  on  environmental  labels  concerns  the  fairness  of  their 
display in marketing to consumers. There are only a limited number of uniform requirements 
to  ensure  the  transparency  and  credibility  of  such  labels  towards  users.  These  uniform 
requirements  ensure  that  entities  running  environmental  labels,  as  well  as  the  companies 
applying for those labels, do not face disproportionate costs. At the same time, it will ensure a 
high  degree  of  legal  certainty  for  companies.  By  providing  competent  national  bodies  with 
uniform criteria to assess the fairness of the use of any environmental label, this measure will 
also facilitate enforcement activities and pursue a high level of consumer protection.   

2.4 

Choice of the instrument 

The  proposal  is  a  stand-alone  legal  instrument  that  would  not  amend  existing  legislation.  It 
sets a framework for the substantiation of voluntary environmental claims. Given that it aims 
to ensure consumer protection in an area regulated by Directives, such legal form fits better 
the existing Union and national legal framework and the enforcement mechanisms established 
by  the  Member  States.  It  is  therefore  considered  that  the  most  appropriate  instrument  is  a 
Directive.  

3.  

RESULTS  OF 
COMPLIANCE WITH BETTER REGULATION PRINCIPLES & FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS 

STAKEHOLDERS  CONSULTATIONS  & 

IMPACT  ASSESSMENT, 

3.1. Stakeholder consultations 

In the preparatory process of this proposal, the Commission consulted stakeholders via:  

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– 

– 

– 

– 

Several public consultations in the context of the proposal on empowering consumers 
for the green transition15,42. 

A  public  consultation  on  the  product  policy  framework  for  the  circular  economy, 
with  a  section  dedicated  to  potential  future  policy  options  based  on  the 
Environmental  Footprint  methods  (from  29  November  2018  to  24  January  2019)43. 
Out of the 291 respondents, some indicated that companies should be able to freely 
choose  how  to  generate  environmental  information,  provided  that  they  meet 
minimum criteria to avoid greenwashing. Respondents also highlighted the need for 
flexibility  regarding  the  medium  of  communication:  it  should  not  be  mandatory  to 
use a label or QR code to provide information, as the type of information and level of 
detail may depend on the target audience. The respondents also highlighted the need 
to offer an SME tool or support from the European Commission for implementation. 

Online  targeted  consultations  that  involved  key  stakeholders  related  to  the 
Environmental  Footprint  methods  (from12  November  2018  to  18  December  2018) 
with 124 respondents 44. 

An open public consultation on the green claims initiative, between 27 August and 3 
December 2020, through which 362 contributions were made16.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

business 

Some 
certification/verification  organizations 
ISO14025. 

associations 

suggested 

the 

that  operate 

use 

of 

independent 
in  accordance  with 

Large  companies  highlighted  that  the  EU  framework  should  allow  for 
flexibility regarding the medium of communication used to make claims. 

Environmental NGOs expressed that single environmental scores should, by no 
means, be a way to hide trade-offs, and should be avoided.  

Consumer  NGOs  also 
that  environmental  claims  could  be 
substantiated  by  existing  tools  such  as  the  type  1  ecolabels,  Eco  Lighthouse, 
EMAS and ISO14001.   

indicated 

A  few  public  authorities’  representatives  thought  it  should  be  possible  to 
substantiate claims with  ‘official’  ecolabels  such  as the Nordic Swan and EU 
Ecolabel.  Public  administrations  slightly  prefer  independent  certification  and 
verification. 

for  citizens, 

As 
organisations is the preferred option. 

independent  certification/verification  by  accredited 

A  stakeholder  workshop  with  several  sessions  in  November  2020  dedicated  to  overall 
feedback,  feedback  on  communication  options,  on  practical  challenges  for  companies  in 
substantiating environmental claims, on the reliability of information and on implications for 
ecolabels;  with  on  average  200  stakeholders  participated  per  session45. The  workshops 
confirmed  that  greenwashing  needs  to  be  addressed  and  that  there  is  the  need  for  a 

42 

43 

44 
45 

Overview  of  all  consultations  carried  out  in  the  context  of  the  Impact  Assessment  can  be  found  in  Annex  2  of 
COM(2022)85 final  
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/1740-Towards-an-EU-Product-Policy-
Framework-contributing-to-the-Circular-Economy_en  
https://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/smgp/pdf/EF_stakeholdercons19.pdf   
More information available at https://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/smgp/initiative_on_green_claims.htm 

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harmonised EU-level approach. Several stakeholders indicated the need to continue using the 
EU Ecolabel and other reliable type I ecolabels. 

3.2 

Impact assessment 

3.2.1 

Problem definition & preferred policy option  

This  proposal  is  based  on  the impact assessment  published  together  with  the  Commission 
proposal for empowering consumers for the green transition46. The Commission’s Regulatory 
Scrutiny  Board  (RSB)  first  issued  a  negative  opinion with  comprehensive  comments on  5 
February  2021.  After  a  significant  revision  of  the  initial  draft,  the  RSB  provided  a  positive 
further  comments  on 17  September  202147.  Annex 
opinion  with 
I of the impact 
assessment explains how the RSB comments were addressed. 

The impact assessment identifies two problems divided into a number of sub-problems. This 
proposal focusses on one the two problems and two of its sub-problems.  

Problem 2: Consumers face misleading commercial practices related to the sustainability of 
products.  

Sub-Problem  2.2:  Consumers  are  faced  with  unclear  or  poorly-substantiated  environmental 
claims (‘greenwashing’) from companies. 

Sub-problem  2.3:  Consumers  are  faced  with  sustainability  labels  that  are  not  always 
transparent or credible48.  

A  number  of  policy  options  were  considered  for  each  individual  sub-problem.  The  Unfair 
Commercial  Practices  Directive  and  its  amendment  are  designed  to  act  as  lex  generalis.  As 
such, it was decided that some of the elements of the preferred policy options selected in the 
impact assessment to tackle sub-problem 2.2 and sub-problem 2.3 would not be implemented 
via  the  initiative  on  Empowering  consumers  for  the  green  transition  but  via  dedicated  and 
complementary lex specialis, a proposal on environmental claims. 

On  the  basis  of  a  multi-criteria  analysis,  complemented  by  a  cost-benefit  analysis,  and  a 
qualitative assessment of the proportionality of the various options considered, a combination 
of two preferred policy options49 were proposed to address these problems: 

(1) Prohibition of environmental claims that do not fulfil a minimum set of criteria50 (to 
address sub-problem 2.2) 

The  preferred  option  would  ensure  consumers  are  protected  from  greenwashing,  since  a 
certain  standard  will  need  to  be  met  by  those  making  such  claims.  It  would  also  facilitate 
enforcement by consumer protection authorities. 

(2)  Prohibition  of  sustainability  labels  not  meeting  minimum  transparency  and 
credibility requirements51 (to address sub-problem 2.3) 

The preferred option would ensure consumers are protected from being misled by such labels 
and tools. 

46 
47 
48 

49 
50 
51 

SWD(2022) 85 final 
SEC(2022) 165 
This  proposal  does  not  focus  on  digital  information  tools  which  are  addressed  in  the  proposal  on  Empowering 
consumers for the green transition.  
SWD(2022) 85 final, Section 7: Preferred Policy Options, pp 59. 
SWD(2022)85 final, pp. 29-30 
SWD(2022)85 final, pp. 31-32 

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Furthermore,  in  the  course  of  the  preparation  of  this  initiative,  the  following  additional 
measures  were  identified  to  increase  the  effectiveness  and  efficiency  of  the  EU  rules  on 
environmental claims:  

– 

– 

– 

– 

establishment  of  a  verification  mechanism  to  facilitate  the  implementation  and 
enforcement  of  ensuring  that  minimum  criteria  on  substantiation  of  claims  are 
respected, that a level playing field on the EU market is created, and that companies 
operating on the single market have more legal certainty and less burdens;  

use of aggregated scores on environmental impacts to be limited to environmental 
claims,  including  labels,  established  at  EU  level  only  with  the  aim  to  ensure 
implementation  of  the  lessons  learned  from  the  work  on  a  common  standardised 
method at EU level (see box below);  

the possibility to exclude microenterprises from the requirements on substantiation 
and linked rules on communication to avoid disproportionate impacts on the smallest 
traders; 

to effectively limit the proliferation of environmental labels and focus efforts on 
increasing  the  take-up  of  existing  public  schemes  and  on  developing  EU  level 
labelling requirements for the single market,  

– 

– 

the  creation  of  new  private  schemes  should  be  approved  by  Member  States 
only and if they provide added value, and 

the creation of new public schemes at the national or regional level should be 
prohibited. New public schemes should be developed at the EU level only.  

Lessons  learnt  from  the  work  on  a  standard  methodology  to  substantiate  claims  on 
environmental impacts 

When initially preparing for an initiative on green claims, the European Commission launched 
work  and  consultations  on  the  option  of  using  a  standard  methodology  to  substantiate 
environmental  claims.  The  scope  of  this  work  focused  on  the  use  of  EU  product  and 
organisation  environmental  footprint  methods 
to  substantiate  environmental  claims. 
Depending  on  product  category,  these  methods52  allow  to  measure  the  environmental 
performance of a product or organisation throughout the value chain,  from the extraction of 
raw materials to the end of life. The environmental footprint methods aim to provide robust 
and prominent methodologies developed in full transparency with stakeholders and based on 
scientific evidence. 

In the preparatory work the Commission considered as one of these options to establish an EU 
legal  framework  requiring  companies  making  claims  related  to  the  impacts  covered  by  the 
environmental footprint methods53 to substantiate them via those methods. However, even if 
the environmental footprint methods are helpful to businesses to identify the areas where they 
should improve their environmental impact and performance, and can adequately substantiate 
certain claims on several product categories, the methods do not yet cover all relevant impact 

52 

53 

More  information  on  the  methods  and  on  the  pilot  phase  during  which  they  were  tested  can  be  found  here: 
https://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/smgp/  
Climate  change,  ozone  depletion,  human  toxicity  –  cancer,  human  toxicity  –  non-cancer,  particulate  matter, 
ionizing radiation – human health, photochemical ozone formation – human health, acidification, eutrophication – 
terrestrial,  eutrophication  –  freshwater,  eutrophication  –  marine,  ecotoxicity  –  fresh  water,  land  use,  water  use, 
resource use – minerals and metals, resource use – fossils. 

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categories  for  all  product  types  (e.g.  as  regards  marine  fisheries  –  the  sustainability  of  the 
targeted  fish  stock;  as  regards  food  and  agricultural  products  –  farm  level  biodiversity  and 
nature  protection,  as  well  as  different  farming  practices,  as  regards  textiles-  microplastics 
release)  and may therefore  give an incomplete picture of the  environmental  credentials  of a 
product in the green claims context. In addition, many environmental claims are also made on 
environmental aspects (e.g. durability, reusability, reparability, recyclability, recycled content, 
use of natural content) for which the environmental footprint methods are not suited to serve 
as  the  only  method  for  substantiation.  Addressing  the  very  wide  and  fast  changing  area  of 
environmental  claims  by  means  of  a  single  method  has  its  limitations.  Prescribing  a  single 
method like the environmental footprint as the standard methodology of substantiation for all 
environmental claims would not be appropriate and pose a risk for companies not being able 
to  communicate  on  relevant  environmental  aspects  or  performance  in  relation  to  their 
products or activities.  

For these reasons and based  on the results of the consultation, an internal assessment of the 
implications  in  terms  of  burden  to  companies  and  further  exchanges  with  stakeholders,  the 
option  of  using  one  standard  methodology  to  substantiate  environmental  claims  was  not 
pursued.  Instead,  a  more  flexible  approach  based  on  the  preferred  policy  option  from  the 
impact  assessment  developed  for  the  initiative  on  empowering  consumers  for  the  green 
transition was considered appropriate. 

3.2.2. 

Impacts of the preferred policy option 

The preferred policy option resulting from the cost-benefit analysis of the impact assessment 
has been translated in several provisions both in the proposal on empowering consumers for 
the  green  transition  and  the  proposal  on  environmental  claims.  The  impacts  listed  below 
concern  the  preferred  policy  option  as  a  whole  and  thus  encompass  provisions  from  both 
proposals.  

The  proposal  includes  measures  that  are  relevant  for  the  Commission's  ‘one  in  one  out’ 
approach to reduce administrative burden and were previously reported and accounted for in 
the  impact  assessment  accompanying  the  proposal  on  empowering  consumers  for  the  green 
transition.   

 

Expected impacts of the set scope 

The  proposal  introduces  minimum  requirements  on  substantiation  and  communication  of 
environmental claims which are subject to third party verification to be delivered prior to the 
claim being used in commercial communications. While this measure is expected to eliminate 
misleading or false claims and will help to ensure proper enforcement, it will put an additional 
cost on traders wishing to make such claims. The impact on smaller enterprises is expected to 
be  proportionately  higher  than  on  larger  companies.  For  this  reason,  and  to  ensure  that  the 
smallest  companies  (e.g.  small  family  farms  selling  directly  to  consumers)  are  not 
disproportionately  affected  by  this  additional  administrative  cost,  the  proposal  exempts 
microenterprises  (fewer  than  10  employees  and  annual  turnover  does  not  exceed  EUR  2 
million54) from the obligations of this proposal as regards substantiation and communication 
requirements linked to substantiation assessment. However, in case these smallest companies 
nevertheless  wish  to  receive  a  certificate  of  conformity  of  the  environmental  claim  that  is 
recognised across the Union they should comply with all requirements of this proposal. 

54 

Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of micro, small and  medium-
sized enterprises (OJ L 124, 20.5.2003, p. 36). 

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All traders, however, including the smallest companies, remain within the scope of the Unfair 
Commercial  Practices  Directive.  This  means  that  its  general  rules  on  environmental  claims 
will still apply, and the consumers affected by unfair commercial practices will still be able to 
table complaints to the competent authorities and seek redress in national and EU courts. 

Moreover, the proposal also asks of Member States to take the appropriate measures to help 
small and medium-sized enterprises apply the requirements of the proposal. With facilitated 
access to measures such as financial support and organisational and technical assistance, it is 
expected that these companies will be encouraged to be part of the green transition.  

 

Expected impacts of the requirements on substantiation of claims  

By forbidding claims that do not meet the minimum criteria, this measure will contribute to 
improving the reliability of the information provided to consumers and therefore will have 
a positive impact on the decision making of consumers facilitating the choice of products 
offering  better  environmental  performance,  and  thus  an  increased  consumer  welfare.  With 
certain  consumers  purchasing  products  that  will  be  trully  better  for  the  environment,  it  is 
estimated that the impacts on the environment will be highly positive..   

In terms of impacts on businesses, claims that do not meet these minimum criteria will have 
to  be  removed.  The  removal  of  the  claims  will  require  adjustments  to  product  packages, 
flyers, etc., but this will be a one-off adjustment cost55. 

In addition, businesses will have to bear the cost of substantiation of claims. This cost will 
depend to a large extent on the type of environmental claim the company voluntarily wishes 
to  make  and  for  how  many  products.  Claims  regarding  environmental  impact  of  a  product 
along the life-cycle (e.g. reduction of GHG emissions across the life-cycle and value chain) 
will  require  a  significantly  higher  investment  than  claims  focusing  on  a  specific 
environmental aspect  (e.g. recycled  content in  the packaging).  Depending on the nature and 
complexity of the  claim,  the related substantiation cost  can vary  significantly. For example, 
substantiation costs for a simple claim, e.g. on materials used in production, are estimated at 
EUR  50056.  If  a  company  decides,  for  instance,  to  make  a  claim  on  the  environmental 
footprint  of  one  of  their  products  and  choses  to  conduct  a  study  using  the  product 
environmental footprint method, it would cost around EUR 8 000 (this can decrease to EUR 
4000  in  case  a  product  environmental  footprint  category  rules  exists).  If  the  chosen  claim 
concerns,  e.g.,  the  footprint  of  the  organisation  itself,  using  the  organisation  environmental 
footrpint methods to substantiate the claim can amount to EUR 54 000 (in case sectoral rules 
do not exist)57.  

However, it remains a decision of companies to include (or not) environmental claims in their 
voluntary  commercial  communications.  This  means  that  the  companies  can  control  their 
costs  by  determining  the  scope  of  the  claim  (if  any)  considering  its  expected  return  on 
investment. In short, the costs of substantiation are of a voluntary nature to companies as they 

55 

56 

57 

For the very small share of products in stock just before the approval of the option, it is assumed that the claims 
will be removed by the seller (for  example, by covering them with a sticker). This will impose some costs in the 
first two years of implementation of the option for the small share of products in stock, after which we assume that 
all these products have been sold. 
In-house estimate for a specific claim on an individual impact (e.g. share in % of bio-based (or recycled) content of 
a product) for which the evidence is straightforward, i.e. a claim that can be substantiated based on readily available 
information/documents on materials used in production. 
In-house estimate that concerns the validation of a claim on the environmental footprint of the entire organisation. 
Average  values  based  on  an  additional,  targeted  survey  made  by  DG  ENV  with  inputs  from  seven  of  the  main 
consultants  that  have  been  supporting  PEFCR/OEFSR  developments,  cross-checked  with  other  sources  from  the 
literature. 

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are part of one’s marketing strategy and therefore credible estimations of the overall cost for 
the Union market are difficult. 

When it comes to enforcement costs and other costs, the competent authorities will need to 
assess to what extent the specific claim complies with the criteria set out under this option, i.e. 
if the company making the claim holds a certificate of conformity delivered by an accredited 
verifier. However a number of the interviewed consumer protection authorities indicated that 
the option might lead to savings as it will mean that less resources are needed to substantiate 
their assessment of “greenwashing”.   

 

Expected impacts of the requirements on communication of claims  

It  is  expected  that  the  rules  on  communication  will  result  in  clearer  and  more  transparent 
claims  and  thus  will  increase  consumer  welfare.  In  terms  of  costs  to  businesses,  once  the 
assessment  to  substantiate  the  claim  is  in  place,  the  additional  cost  of  complying  with  the 
communication  requirements  will  be  negligible  and  will  mostly  be  embedded  in  the  cost  of 
substantiation. 

 

Expected impacts of the requirements on labelling schemes 

The  introduction  of  minimum  criteria  for  all  environmental  labels  will  increase  the 
transparency and credibility of labels (and slow down or even reverse the current proliferation 
of these labels) and will enhance the quality of consumer decision-making. Consumers will be 
assured  that  the  products  holding  a  sustainability  label  will  meet  minimum  requirement  on 
transparency and credibility, improving consumer trust and understanding of the labels. These 
additional  requirements  on  governance  of  the  labelling  schemes  are  expected  to  reduce  the 
number of labels, as schemes that are not robust will be weaned out. It is to be noted that the 
conditions  for  joining  environmental  labelling  schemes  for  small  and  medium  sized 
enterprises are proportionate to the size and turnover of the companies.  

The  introduction  of  minimum  criteria  for  assessing  the  fairness  of  sustainability  labels,  as 
envisaged under option 2.3.B, is expected to increase  consumer welfare. When it comes to 
impacts on businesses this measure is expected to contribute to a level-playing field between 
products  displaying  labels  as  all  will  have  to  adhere  to  the  same  minimum  criteria. 
Furthermore,  it  will  also  contribute  to  a  level  playing  field  between  organisations  running 
labels.  

In  addition,  this  measure  is  expected  to  contribute  to  reducing  the  barriers  to  cross-border 
trade by avoiding non-harmonised national approaches by the Member States concerned with 
the  proliferation  of  labels/logos  that  are  non-transparent  or  not  credible.  This  will  decrease 
legal uncertainty and costs to companies as they will have to adhere to similar rules within the 
internal market. 

Some  administrative  costs  are  expected  for  the  entities  running  and  managing  the 
labels/logos58. They will also have substantive compliance costs resulting from implementing 
the  necessary  changes  in  their  internal  processes,  including  carrying  out  third  party 
certifications for each application (if they are not doing it already at the baseline). The costs 
incurred  by  the  entities  running  and  managing  the  labels,  as  quantified  in  the  impact 
assessment, will be passed on to the manufacturers and sellers applying for the label.   

As for indirect costs, the costs of applying for labels are expected to increase. On the other 
hand, the increased harmonisation might reduce the need to apply for several labels. 

58 

Details on administrative cost break down in SWD(2022) 85 final, pp. 200 

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Enforcement  costs  for  public  administration  estimated  in  the  impact  assessment  are  not 
expected  to  be  significant  since  the  proposed  minimum  criteria  require  all  relevant 
information to be provided online and the labels require 3rd party verification.  

Further measures on labelling, developed additionally to the impact assessment, will provide a 
strong  support  to  the  achievement  of  the  objective  to  stop  proliferation  of  environmental 
labelling  schemes  across  the  EU  and  improve  the  functioning  of  the  Internal  Market.  By 
putting a halt on new public schemes, regional and national authorities will be prevented from 
developing  labels  and  labelling  schemes  that  will  have  to  be  reviewed  or  abandoned  soon 
after the introduction of an equivalent label at the EU level. The period between the adoption 
of  this  measure  and  its  implementation  will  provide  time  for  planning  and  prevent  those 
additional costs for public authorities. Developing labels at the EU level for the same product 
groups will also ensure a more efficient use of resources than if these were developed at the 
national level. 

The uncontrolled establishment of new labelling schemes developed by private operators will 
also  be  reduced.  Member  State  authorities  will  have  to  validate  the  development  of  such 
schemes  based  on  their  added  value.  This  is  expected  to  contribute  to  the  reduction  of  the 
proliferation of schemes. The administrative cost for public authorities for developing and 
implementing the validation procedure is difficult to estimate because there is no certainty as 
to the possible number of applications. This measure is expected to incur an  administrative 
cost  for  companies  in  submitting  the  information  accompanying  their  request  to  Member 
State  authorities  to  develop  a  private  labelling  scheme.  This  administrative  cost  has  not  yet 
been  reported  and  is  relevant  for  the  ‘one  in  one  out’  approach  to  reduce  administrative 
burden.  However,  the  costs  are  not  expected  to  be  significant,  as  the  number  of  such 
submissions  is  expected  to  be  relatively  low  due  to  an  advance  notice  of  limitations  on 
establishment  of  such  schemes  resulting  from  the  delay  between  the  date  this  proposal  is 
made and the date of transposition (expected to be around 4 years). 

Limiting the possibility for labels to present a rating or score based on an aggregated indicator 
of environmental impacts to only those developed at the EU level aims at reducing consumer 
confusion and misinformation as well as overall proliferation of labels. There is a risk that the 
nature of an aggregate indicator could be used to dilute negative impacts of certain parameters 
of  the  product  with  more  positive  impacts  of  other  parameters  and  transmit  misleading 
information to the consumer regarding the actual main impacts of the product. It is essential to 
stop  potential  schemes  with  aggregate  scoring  at  regional  or  national  scale  to  ensure 
harmonisation  in  the  internal  market.  Moreover,  such  labels  are  usually  based  on  different 
methodologies  for  the  same  product  group,  which  may  result  in  the  same  product  receiving 
different rating depending on the scheme. 

 

Expected impacts of the ex-ante verification 

The  ex-ante  verification  carried  out  by  independent  accredited  bodies  will  facilitate  and 
support the enforcement of the proposal’s requirements without putting an excessive strain 
on  the  competent  authorities’  resources.  The  certificate  of  conformity  allows  the  local 
competent authorities to easily check the reliability of a claim on the market. The complaints 
against  claims  for  which  a  valid  certificate  of  conformity  exists  could  be  handled  quicker 
contributing to cost savings of enforcement as compared to business as usual.  

Companies making environmental claims would benefit from the process of certification of 
claims  because  the  certificate  of  conformity  recognised  across  the  EU  would  provide  legal 
certainty  and  would  require  only  one  certification  within  the  EU  making  the  process  of 
certification cheaper and easier for entities trading within the internal market.  

EN 

16 

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As for administrative costs for companies, they would need to submit an ex-ante request to 
a  ‘verifier’  for  a  certificate  of  conformity  before  making  an  environmental  claim.  This 
administrative cost will depend on the scope of every voluntary claim made and the expected 
quantities  of  claims,  making  the  overall  cost  for  the  Union  market  difficult  to  estimate  in  a 
credible manner. For this reason this cost has not yet been reported while it is relevant for the 
‘one in one out’ approach to reduce administrative burden. 

 

Expected progress towards relevant sustainable development goals 

Regarding  SDG  12  ensuring  sustainable  consumption  and  production  patterns,  the 
implementation  of  the  preferred  policy  option  in  this  proposal  and  in  the  proposal 
empowering  consumers  for  the  green  transition  is  expected  to  lead  to  an  increase  in  the 
purchase  of  products  which  do  not  deceive  the  consumer  as  to  their  environmental  impact. 
The  initiatives  are  expected  to  better  protect  consumers  against  unfair  commercial  practices 
such  as  greenwashing  or  non-transparent  voluntary  sustainability  labels,  which  are  not 
compatible  with  the  green  transition.  As  for  SDG  13  on  climate  action,  the  initiatives  are 
expected to lead to a saving of 5 – 7 MtCO2e over a period of 15 years59.  

3.3.  

Regulatory fitness and simplification 

The proposal is  a new initiative aiming to  complement the  general consumer law directives 
and  specifically,  as  lex  specialis,  the  proposal  on  empowering  consumers  for  the  green 
transition.  The  proposal  aims  directly  at  reducing  regulatory  burdens  by  strengthening  the 
functioning of the internal market for green products and companies and by setting minimum 
criteria on environmental  claims.  It  will reduce the risk of legal fragmentation  of the single 
market  and  increase  legal  certainty.  This,  in  turn,  is  expected  to  result  in  cost  savings  for 
businesses  willing  to  make  such  claims  and  for  competent  authorities  responsible  for  the 
enforcement of consumer law. Moreover, the proposal foresees a review clause six years after 
entry  into  force  to  assess  if  the  directive  achieved  its  objectives,  and  whether  further 
harmonisation  is  needed  as  regards  substantiation  and  communication  of  environmental 
claims  to  achieve  these  objectives  in  a  more  efficient  manner. The  proposal  concerns 
environmental  claims  made  in  both  the  physical  and  digital  environments  and  is  thus 
considered digital-ready. 

3.4.  

Fundamental rights 

The  proposal  is  in  accordance  with  Article  38  of  the  Charter  of  Fundamental  Rights, 
according  to  which  the  EU  must  ensure  a  high  level  of  consumer  protection.  This  will  be 
ensured  by  ensuring  the  reliability,  comparability  and  verifiability  of  environmental  claims 
and by addressing greenwashing and the use of unreliable and non-transparent environmental 
claims and labels. The proposal will also enhance the right to a high level of environmental 
protection and the improvement of the quality of the environment, as enshrined in Article 37 
of the Charter. In addition, by fighting greenwashing, the proposal will ensure a level playing 
field for businesses when marketing their greenness and therefore guarantees the freedom to 
conduct a business in accordance with Union law and national laws and practices.  

4. 

BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS 

The initiative involves a budget of a total of approx. EUR 25 million until 2027 (i.e. under the 
current MFF).  

59 

SWD(2022) 85 final 

EN 

17 

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to 

implement 

As detailed in the Legislative financial statement, the initiative foresees human resources and 
the  Directive  and  prepare  delegated  and 
administrative  expenditure 
implementing acts.  
It also foresees appropriations which will be fully financed through redeployment within the 
LIFE programme envelope. As detailed in the tables included in Section 3 of the Legislative 
Financial Statement, this amount covers the acquisition of environmental footprint and other 
required datasets to support companies, especially SMEs, in complying with the proposal on 
environmental claims. Indeed, public access to this information for SMEs, larger companies, 
public  agencies  and  all  interested  parties  will  help  reduce  costs  for  developing  and 
strengthening their own methodologies and potentially help decreasing the costs for the users 
of  the  developed  methodologies.  The  access  to  environmental  footprint  datasets  will  also 
support the implementation of other EU policies on environmental sustainability and helping 
consumers  to  make  the  right  choices,  such  as  the  proposal  for  Ecodesign  for  Sustainable 
Products  Regulation  (ESPR).  The  ESPR  introduces  the  possibility  to  set  mandatory 
information  requirements,  which  may  also  be  linked  with  labelling  requirements,  and  will 
result in improved information flows through Digital Product Passports. The EF datasets will 
support the calculation and setting of information and performance requirements in delegated 
acts  linked  to  the  ESPR,  e.g.  related  to  carbon  and  environmental  footprint,  based  on  a 
harmonised  set  of  high-quality  secondary  data.  Together  those  data  and  evidence-based 
policies will lead to a better-informed consumer that can trust the environmental information 
provided by companies. 

5. 

OTHER ELEMENTS – IMPLEMENTATION PLANS & MONITORING, EVALUATION & 
REPORTING ARRANGEMENT  

The  Commission  will  submit  a  report,  assessing  the  achievement  of  objectives  of  this 
Directive,  to  the  European  Parliament  and  Council  no  later  than  six  years  after  its 
adoption. Member States are to regularly monitor the application of this Directive based on an 
overview  of  environmental  claims  that  have  been  notified  to  the  enforcement  authorities. 
Member  States  are  to  supply  this  information  to  the  Commission  on  an  annual  basis.  The 
European  Environment  Agency  is  to  publish  a  bi-annual  report  with  its  assessment  of  the 
evolution of environmental claims and labelling schemes in each Member State. 

6. 

DETAILED EXPLANATION OF THE SPECIFIC PROVISIONS OF THE PROPOSAL 

6.1.  

Scope of the proposal 

Article 1 sets the scope. The proposal sets minimum requirements on the substantiation and 
communication  of  voluntary  environmental  claims  and  environmental  labelling  in  business-
to-consumer  commercial  practices,  without  any  prejudice  to  other  Union  legislation  setting 
out conditions on environmental claims as regards certain products or sectors (as described in 
Section 1.2).  

6.2.  

Requirements on substantiation of environmental claims  

Article 3 of the proposal focuses on elements that have not been integrated to the consumer 
protection legislation, notably as regards the substantiation of claims, and in some instances 
provides  additional  clarifications.  The  proposal  requires  that  the  substantiation  of  explicit 
environmental  claims  shall  be  based  on  an  assessment  that  meets  the  selected  minimum 
criteria to prevent claims from being misleading, namely that the underpinning assessment: 

– 

relies on recognised scientific evidence and state of the art technical knowledge;  

EN 

18 

  EN 

– 

– 

– 

– 

– 

– 

– 

– 

demonstrates the significance of impacts, aspects and performance from a life-cycle 
perspective; 

takes into account all significant aspects and impacts to assess the performance;  

demonstrates whether the claim is accurate for the whole product or only for parts of 
it (for the whole life cycle or only for certain stages, for all the trader’s activities or 
only a part of them); 

demonstrates that the claim is not equivalent to requirements imposed by law; 

provides information on whether the product performs environmentally significantly 
better than what is common practice;  

identifies  whether  a  positive  achievement  leads  to  significant  worsening  of  another 
impact;  

requires greenhouse gas offsets to be reported in a transparent manner;  

includes accurate primary or secondary information.  

Microenterprises (fewer than 10 employees and with an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 2 
million60)  are  exempted  from  the  requirements  of  this  article  unless  they  wish  to  receive  a 
certificate of conformity of the environmental claim in which case they will have to comply 
with these requirements. 

In  addition,  Article  4  sets  out  further  requirements  for  comparative  claims  (i.e.  claims  that 
state  or  imply  that  a  product  or  trader  has  less  or  more  environmental  impacts  or  performs 
better  or  worse  regarding  environmental  aspects  than  other  products  or  traders).  These 
requirements are:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

the  use  of  equivalent  information  for  the  assessment  of  environmental  impacts, 
aspects or performance of compared products;  

the  use  of  data  generated  or  sourced  in  an  equivalent  manner  for  the  products  or 
traders that are subject to comparisons;  

the coverage of stages along the value chain is equivalent for the products and traders 
compared while ensuring that the most significant stages are taken into account for 
products and traders compared;  

the coverage of environmental impacts, aspects or performances is equivalent for the 
products and traders compared and ensures that those most significant are taken into 
account for all products and traders compared;  

the  assumptions  used  for  the  comparison  are  set  consistent  for  the  products  and 
traders compared. 

for comparative  claims  on improvement of impacts  (compared to  earlier  version of 
product) include explaining the impact of improvement on other aspects and impacts 
and stating the baseline year. 

Different types of claims will require different levels of substantiation. The proposal does not 
prescribe a single method and does not require conducting a full life-cycle analysis for each 
type  of  a  claim.  The  assessment  used  to  substantiate  explicit  environmental  claims  need  to 
consider  the  life-cycle  of  the  product  or  of  the  overall  activities  of  the  trader  in  order  to 

60 

OJ L 124, 20.5.2003, p. 36 

EN 

19 

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identify the relevant impacts which are subject to the claims, and to enable the trader to avoid 
omissions  of  any  relevant  aspects.  This  is  also  necessary  to  check  if  the  benefits  claimed 
result in a transfer of impacts to other stages of the life cycle or to significant increase of other 
environmental impacts. 

For the assessment to be considered robust, it should include primary, company-specific data, 
for  relevant  aspects  contributing  significantly  to  the  environmental  performance  of  the 
product or trader referred to in the claim. Consumer protection authorities in some countries 
are  starting  to  question  product  specific  environmental  claims  if  no  primary  data  has  been 
used in the substantiation. The right balance should be found between ensuring relevant and 
robust  information  for  substantiating  claims  and  the  efforts  needed  to  gather  primary 
information considering the accessibility of primary information. The requirement to include 
primary  information  should  consider  how  much  influence  the  trader  making  the  claim  has 
over the respective process, and if primary information is available. The requirement should 
also consider if the processes are run by the trader making the claim and, in the case, where 
they are not, if the trader has access to primary information on the process. Moreover, if the 
process is not run by the trader making the claim and if primary information is not available, 
the  use  of  secondary  information  should  be  permitted,  even  for  processes  that  contribute 
significantly  to  the  environmental  performance  of  the  product  or  trader.  In  any  case,  both 
primary and secondary, i.e., average data, should show a high level of quality and accuracy. 

It  is  deemed  appropriate  to  address  climate-related  claims  based  on  offsets  in  a  more 
transparent  manner.  Therefore,  the  proposal  requires,  for  climate-related  claims,  to  report 
separately from  greenhouse gas emissions any greenhouse gas emissions  offsets used by the 
traders, as additional environmental information, which is also the approach followed by the 
product  environmental  footprint/organisation  environmental  footprint  methods.  In  addition, 
this  information  should  also  specify  whether  these  offsets  relate  to  emission  reductions  or 
removals  and  ensure  that  the  offsets  relied  upon  are  of  high  integrity  and  accounted  for 
correctly to coherently and transparently reflect the claimed impact on climate. 

Microenterprises  are  exempted  from  the  requirements  of  this  article  unless  they  wish  to 
receive a certificate of conformity of the environmental claim in which case they will have to 
comply with these requirements. 

The  Commission  should  be  empowered  to  adopt  delegated  acts  to  complement  the 
requirements  on  substantiation  for  certain  types  of  claims.  These  delegated  acts  should  in 
principle follow the results of monitoring of evolution of environmental claims on the market 
to allow prioritising claims that are prone to misleading consumers. However, for some types 
of claims it may be necessary for the Commission to act prior to that. 

6.3.  

Requirements on communication of environmental claims  

The  provisions  of  Article  5  respond  to  the  problem  of  lack  of  reliable  information  on 
product’s environmental characteristics61 for those traders who make an environmental claim. 
These requirements also support the aim of ensuring that environmental claims are made on 
products or traders that offer environmental benefits as compared to common practice. 

Notably, the proposal sets out that, when communicated, all claims: 

61 

SWD(2022) 85 final, p.50: “In relation to sub-problem 1.1 (lack of reliable information on product’s environmental 
characteristics at the point of sale), all options have been discarded at an early stage as their added value could not 
be demonstrated, and the measures taken under the Green Claims Initiative and the Sustainable Products Initiative 
are expected to reduce this sub-problem significantly.” 

EN 

20 

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 

 

 

shall only cover environmental impacts, aspects or performance that are assessed in 
accordance  with  the  substantiation  requirements  laid  down  in  this  proposal  and  are 
identified as significant for the respective product or trader;  

where relevant for the claim made, shall include information on how consumers may 
appropriately use the product to decrease environmental impacts;  

shall be accompanied by information on the substantiation (including information on 
product or activities of trader; aspects, impacts or performance covered by the claim; 
other  recognised  international  standards,  where  relevant;  underlying  studies  and 
calculations;  how  improvements  that  are  subject  to  the  claim  are  achieved;  the 
certificate of conformity and coordinates of the verifier). 

Microenterprises  are  exempted  from  the  requirements  of  this  article  as  regards  provision  of 
information  on  substantiation  unless  they  wish  to  receive  a  certificate  of  conformity  of  the 
environmental claim in which case they will have to comply with these requirements. 

The  Commission  should  be  empowered  to  adopt  delegated  acts  to  complement  the 
requirements  on  communication  for  certain  types  of  claims  in  case  this  is  necessary  to 
complement the supplementary rules on substantiation adopted under Article 3. Furthermore, 
Article 6 states that comparative claims on the improvement of an environmental impact of a 
product as compared to another product of the same trader, or that the trader no longer sells to 
consumers, shall be based on evidence that improvement is significant and achieved in the last 
five years.  

6.4.  

Provisions on environmental labels and labelling schemes  

These  requirements  should  be  seen  as  complementary  to  the  requirements  on  displaying  a 
sustainability label set out in the proposal on empowering consumers for the green transition 
and  the  Commission  guidance  on  interpretation  and  application  of  the  Unfair  Commercial 
Practices Directive62.  

On top of requirements on substantiation and communication applicable to all types of claims, 
this proposal builds on the requirements of the proposal on empowering consumers63 banning 
labels based on self-certification64, and provides additional safeguards to improve the quality 
of ecolabelling schemes by requiring the following transparency and credibility requirements 
(as per policy option from the impact assessment).  

Article 7 ensures labels fulfil the requirements already set out in previous articles and subject 
labels to the verification in accordance with Article 11. 

The  proliferation  of  environmental  labels  and  the  ensuing  consumer  confusion,  market 
fragmentation and increased burden from complying with requirements in different Member 
States necessitate ambitious measures that benefit both consumers and businesses. Therefore, 
in the course of the decision making process it was considered appropriate that the proposal 
on  environmental  claims  foresees  additional  provisions  to  target  proliferation  of  labels, 
beyond those assessed in the impact assessment accompanying this proposal and the proposal 
Empowering consumers for the green transition, notably the prohibition of labels presenting a 

62 

63 

64 

Commission  Notice  –  Guidance  on  the  interpretation  and  application  of  Directive  2005/29/EC  of  the  European 
Parliament and of the Council concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market 
(OJ C 526, 29.12.2021, p. 1). 
COM(2022)  143  final,  Annex  to  the  Proposal  for  a  Directive  of  the  European  parliament  and  of  the  Council 
amending  Directives  2005/29/EC  and  2011/83/EU  as  regards  empowering  consumers  for  the  green  transition 
through better protection against unfair practices and better information.  
i.e. not based on a certification scheme, or not established by public authorities 

EN 

21 

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rating  or  score  based  on  an  aggregated  indicator  representing  cumulative  environmental 
impacts unless these are established at the EU level. 

Article  8  further  details  requirements  for  environmental 
labelling  schemes.  These 
requirements are relatively similar to the governance criteria of a number of well-known and 
reputable public and private sustainability labelling schemes, and include as follows:  

 

 

 

 

requirements  on  transparency  and  accessibility  of  information  on  ownership, 
decision-making body and objectives,  

the criteria underlying the award of labels are developed by experts and reviewed by 
stakeholders;  

the existence of complaint and resolution mechanism;  

procedures  for  dealing  with  non-compliance  and  possibility  of  withdrawal  or 
suspension of labelling in case of persistent and flagrant non-compliance. 

For the same reasons listed above on the proliferation of environmental labels and the ensuing 
consumer confusion, Article 8 also introduces additional provisions to target the proliferation 
of labelling schemes, notably:  

 

 

prohibition of establishment of new national or regional publicly owned schemes ; 

a validation procedure for new schemes established by private operators from the EU 
and third countries that should be assessed by national authorities and validated only 
if  they  demonstrate  added  value  in  terms  of  their  environmental  ambition,  their 
coverage  of  environmental  impacts,  of  product  category  group  or  sector  and  their 
ability  to  support  the  green  transition  of  SMEs  as  compared  to  the  existing  Union, 
national or regional schemes. 

New  public  schemes  from  third  countries  wishing  to  operate  on  the  Union  market  have  to 
meet the requirements of this proposal and shall be subject to prior notification and approval 
by the Commission with the aim of ensuring that these schemes provide added value in terms 
of environmental ambition, coverage of environmental impacts, product groups or sectors. 

Article 9 sets the requirements for the review of environmental claims by traders. 

6.5.  

Ex-ante verification of environmental claims and labelling schemes  

Article  10  details  how  the  substantiation  and  communication  of  environmental  claims  and 
labels will have to be 3rd party verified and certified to comply with the requirements of the 
Directive before the  claim  is  used in  a commercial communication. An officially  accredited 
body  (the  ‘verifier’)  will  carry  out  this  ex-ante  verification  of  claims  submitted  by  the 
company  wishing to  use it. This  measure will ensure every  claim  that the consumer will be 
exposed to had been verified to be reliable and trustworthy. The proposal also defines detailed 
requirements for ‘verifiers’ to fulfil in order to be accredited by the Member States.  

Once  the  ‘verifier’  has  carried  out  the  verification  of  the  submitted  claim,  it  will  decide  to 
issue  (or  not)  a  certificate  of  conformity.  This  certificate  will  be  recognised  across  the  EU, 
shared between Member States via the Internal Market  Information System65 and will allow 
companies to use the claim in a commercial communication to consumers across the internal 
market.  The  certificate  of  conformity  of  claims  will  provide  businesses  with  certainty  that 

65 

Established by Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 
on administrative cooperation through the Internal Market Information System and repealing Commission Decision 
2008/49/EC (OJ L 316, 14.11.2012, p. 1–11) 

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22 

  EN 

                                                 
their certified  claim  will not  be challenged by the competent  authorities in another Member 
State. This procedure will also apply to the verification of labelling schemes in terms of their 
compliance with the governance provisions. The Commission will be empowered to adopt an 
implementing act specifying the format of certificate of conformity of claims. 
Article 11 sets out that the ‘verifier’ must be an officially accredited66 independent body, with 
no  conflicts  of  interest  to  ensure  independence  of  judgment  and  hold  the  highest  degree  of 
professional integrity. They must have the required expertise, equipment, and infrastructure to 
carry  out  the  verifications  as  well  as  enough  suitable  personnel  that  observe  professional 
secrecy.  

6.6.  

Small and medium sized enterprises 

Given the context of programmes from which small and medium sized enterprises can benefit, 
Article  12  ensures  such  initiatives  are  taken  into  account  and  the  appropriate  measures  are 
taken to help them including financial support, access to finance, specialised management and 
staff training as well as organisational and technical assistance. 

6.7. 

Enforcement of provisions  

Article 13 foresees that each Member State will designate one or more appropriate competent 
authority  as  responsible  to  enforce  the  provisions  set  out  in  the  proposal.  As  the  consumer 
protection  mechanisms  vary  between  each  Member  State,  it  is  more  pertinent  to  let  them 
designate  the  most  efficient  competent  authority  to  carry  out  the  enforcement  including 
inspections, sanctions and judicial pursuits. In this way, the proposal leaves the possibility to 
Member States to choose the existing mechanisms under consumer protection law. 

If more than one competent authority is designated on their territory, Member States will need 
to  clarify  the  duties  of  each  and  establish  the  appropriate  communication  and  coordination 
mechanisms, once again with the aim of efficiency.  

Article  14  delineates  the  powers  of  the  competent  authorities  to  investigate  and  enforce  the 
requirements.  They  include  the  power  to  access  relevant  information  related  to  an 
infringement,  to  require  access  to  relevant  information  to  establish  if  there  has  been  an 
infringement, to start investigations or proceedings, to require traders to adopt remedies and 
take action to end an infringement, to adopt injunctive relief where appropriate and to impose 
penalties.  

Article 15 sets out that the competent authorities are also bestowed with the responsibility of 
monitoring  the  compliance  of  the  proposal  on  the  internal  market.  They  are  expected  to 
perform regular checks of claims and labelling schemes (based on publicly available reports) 
as well as evaluating claims and labelling schemes that present a risk of infringement. Article 
16 details the complaint handling mechanisms and requirements for access to justice.  

When  it  comes  to  addressing  infringements,  Article  17  defines  a  series  of  obligations  for 
Member States to respect when defining their penalty regime. The penalty must depend on the 
nature,  gravity,  extent  and  duration  of  the  infringement,  its  character  (i.e.  intentional  or 
negligent), the financial strength of the responsible party, the economic benefits derived from 
the  infringement  as  well  as  any  previous  infringements  or  other  aggravating  factors.  The 
penalties  already  imposed  in  other  Member  States  for  the  same  infringement  shall  also  be 
considered. 

66 

In line with Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 setting out 
the  requirements  for  accreditation  and  market  surveillance  relating  to  the  marketing  of  products  and  repealing 
Regulation (EEC) No 339/93 (OJ L 218, 13.8.2008, p. 30) 

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Article  18  sets  out  the  exercise  of  the  delegation.  The  Committee  procedure  is  set  out  in 
Article 19.  

Article 20 sets out the monitoring requirements which is to be based on an overview of faulty 
environmental claims and labels provided by the Member States. The EEA shall publish on a 
bi-annual basis a report assessing the evolution of environmental claims in each Member State 
and the Union as a whole. An evaluation of the Directive is also foreseen in the provisions.

EN 

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2023/0085 (COD) 

Proposal for a 

DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 

on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims 
Directive) 

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, 

Having  regard  to  the  Treaty  on  the  Functioning  of  the  European  Union,  and  in  particular 
Article 114 thereof, 

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, 

After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments, 

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee  
Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions1,  

Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, 

Whereas: 

(1) 

Claiming  to  be  “green”  and  sustainable  has  become  a  competitiveness  factor,  with 
green products registering greater growth than standard products. If goods and services 
offered  and  purchased  on  the  internal  market  are  not  as  environmentally  friendly  as 
presented, this would mislead the consumers, hamper the green transition and prevent 
the reduction of negative environmental impacts. The potential of green markets is not 
fully  realised.  Different  requirements  imposed  by  national  legislation  or  private 
initiatives  regulating  environmental  claims  create  a  burden  for  companies  in  cross-
border  trade,  as  they  need  to  comply  with  different  requirements  in  each  Member 
State.  This  affects  their  capacity  to  operate  in  and  take  advantage  of  the  internal 
market.  At  the  same  time,  market  participants  have  difficulties  with  identifying 
reliable environmental claims and making optimal purchasing decisions on the internal 
market. With a proliferation of different labels and calculation methods on the market, 
it  is  difficult  for  consumers,  businesses,  investors  and  stakeholders  to  establish  if 
claims are trustworthy. 

(2) 

If  environmental  claims  are  not  reliable,  comparable  and  verifiable,  consumers  and 
other  market  actors  cannot  fully  leverage  their  purchasing  decisions  to  reward  better 
environmental performance. Similarly, the lack of reliable, comparable and verifiable 
information  hinders  incentives  for  optimising  environmental  performance,  which 
would typically go hand in hand with efficiency gains and cost savings for companies 
along the supply chain as well. These consequences are exacerbated by the lack of a 
common reference across the internal market and the ensuing confusion.  

(3) 

For  users  of  environmental  information  (consumers,  businesses,  investors,  public 
administrations,  NGOs)  included  in  environmental  claims,  the  lack  of  reliability, 

1 

OJ C , , p. . 

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25 

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comparability and verifiability leads to an issue of trust in environmental information 
and  confusion  in  interpreting  heterogeneous,  contradictory  messages.  This  is 
detrimental to consumers and other market actors, as they may choose a product or a 
business transaction over other alternatives based on misleading information. 

It is therefore necessary to harmonise further the regulation of environmental claims. 
Such  harmonisation  will  strengthen  the  market  for  more  sustainable  products  and 
traders by avoiding market fragmentation due to diverging national approaches. It will 
also  set  a  benchmark  that  can  drive  the  global  transition  to  a  just,  climate-neutral, 
resource-efficient and circular economy2. 

Detailed Union rules on substantiation of explicit environmental claims, applicable to 
companies  operating  on  the  Union  market  in  business  to  consumer  communication, 
will  contribute  to  the  green  transition  towards  a  circular,  climate-neutral  and  clean 
economy in the Union by enabling consumers to take informed purchasing decisions, 
and will help create a level-playing field for market operators making such claims. 

A  regulatory  framework  for  environmental  claims  is  one  of  the  actions  proposed  by 
the  Commission  to  implement  the  European  Green  Deal3,  which  recognises  that 
reliable,  comparable  and  verifiable  information  plays  an  important  part  in  enabling 
buyers to make more sustainable decisions and reduces the risk of ‘greenwashing’, and 
includes commitments to step up regulatory and non-regulatory efforts to tackle false 
environmental  claims.  Together  with  other  applicable  Union  regulatory  frameworks, 
including  the  proposal  for  a  Directive  on  empowering  consumers  for  the  green 
transition4,  amending  Directive  2005/29/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 
Council5  that  this  proposal  aims  at  complementing,  they  establish  a  clear  regime  for 
environmental claims, including environmental labels.  

This  Directive  is  part  of  a  set  of  interrelated  initiatives  to  establish  a  strong  and 
coherent  product  policy  framework  that  will  make  environmentally  sustainable 
products  and  business  models  the  norm,  and  not  the  exception,  and  to  transform 
consumption patterns so that no waste is produced in the first place. The Directive is 
complemented, amongst others, by interventions on the circular design of products, on 
fostering  new  business  models  and  setting  minimum  requirements  to  prevent  that 
environmentally harmful products are placed on the EU market through the proposal 
for an Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation6. 

Communication  from  the  Commission  to  the  European  Parliament,  the  Council,  the  European 
Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: A new Circular Economy Action 
Plan For a cleaner and more competitive Europe, COM/2020/98 final 
Communication  from  the  Commission  to  the  European  Parliament,  the  Council,  the  European 
Economic  and  Social  Committee  and  the  Committee  of  the  Regions:  The  European  Green  Deal, 
COM/2019/640 final 
Proposal  for  a  Directive  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  amending  Directives 
2005/29/EC and 2011/83/EU as regards empowering consumers for the green transition through better 
protection against unfair practices and better information, COM(2022) 143 final 
Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2005 concerning unfair 
business-to-consumer  commercial  practices  in  the  internal  market  and  amending  Council  Directive 
84/450/EEC,  Directives  97/7/EC,  98/27/EC  and  2002/65/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 
Council  and  Regulation  (EC)  No  2006/2004  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  (Unfair 
Commercial Practices Directive) (OJ L 149, 11.6.2005, p. 22). 
Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for 
setting  ecodesign  requirements  for  sustainable  products  and  repealing  Directive  2009/125/EC, 
COM(2022) 132 final 

(4) 

(5) 

(6) 

(7) 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

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26 

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(8) 

The  specific  needs  of  individual  economic  sectors  should  be  recognised  and  this 
Directive  should  therefore  apply  to  voluntary  explicit  environmental  claims  and 
environmental  labelling  schemes  that  are  not  regulated  by  any  other  Union  act  as 
regards  their  substantiation  or  communication,  or  verification.  This  Directive  should 
therefore  not  apply  to  explicit  environmental  claims  for  which  the  Union  legislation 
lays  down  specific  rules,  including  on  methodological  frameworks,  assessment  or 
accounting  rules  related  to  measuring  and  calculating  environmental  impacts, 
environmental  aspects  or  environmental  performance  of  products  or  traders,  or 
the 
providing  mandatory  and  non-mandatory 
environmental  performance  of  products  and  traders  or  sustainability  information 
involving  messages  or  representations  that  may  be  either  mandatory  or  voluntary 
pursuant to the Union rules. 

to  consumers  on 

information 

(9)  Within  the  context  of  the  European  Green  Deal,  the  Farm  to  Fork  Strategy  and  the 
Biodiversity  Strategy,  and  in  accordance  with  the  target  of  achieving  25%  of  EU 
agricultural land under organic farming by 2030 and a significant increase in organic 
aquaculture  and  with  the  Action  Plan  on  the  Development  of  Organic  Production 
(COM(2021)  141),  organic  farming  and  organic  production  need  to  be  developed 
further. As regards Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the 
Council7,  this  Directive  should  not  apply  to  environmental  claims  on  organically 
certified products substantiated on the basis of that Regulation, related, for instance, to 
the use of pesticides, fertilisers and anti-microbials or, for instance, to positive impacts 
of  organic  farming  on  biodiversity,  soil  or  water8.  It  also  has  a  positive  impact  on 
biodiversity, it creates jobs and attracts young farmers. Consumers recognise its value. 
In  accordance  with  Regulation  (EU)  2018/848,  the  terms  “bio”  and  “eco”  and  their 
derivatives,  whether  alone  or  in  combination,  are  only  to  be  used  in  the  Union  for 
products, their ingredients or feed materials that fall under the scope of that Regulation 
where  they  have  been  produced  in  accordance  with  Regulation  (EU)  2018/848.  For 
instance, in order to call the cotton “eco”, it has to be certified as organic, as it falls 
within  the  scope  of  Regulation  (EU)  2018/848.  On  the  contrary,  if  the  dishwasher 
detergent  is  called  “eco”,  this  does  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  Regulation  (EU) 
2018/848, and is instead regulated by the provisions of Directive 2005/29/EC. 

(10) 

In  addition,  this  Directive  shall  not  apply  to  sustainability  information  involving 
messages or representations that may be either mandatory or voluntary pursuant to the 
Union or national rules for financial services, such as rules relating to banking, credit, 
insurance  and  re-insurance,  occupational  or  personal  pensions,  securities,  investment 
funds,  investment  firms,  payment,  portfolio  management  and  investment  advice, 
including  the  services  listed  in  Annex  I  to  Directive  2013/369  of  the  European 
Parliament  and  of  the  Council,  as  well  as  settlement  and  clearing  activities  and 
advisory, intermediation and other auxiliary financial services, includnig standards or 
certification schemes relating to such financial services. 

7 

8 
9 

Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic 
production and labelling of organic products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 (OJ 
L 150, 14.6.2018, p. 1). 
https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-01/agri-market-brief-20-organic-farming-eu_en_1.pdf 
Directive 2013/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on access to the 
activity of credit institutions and the prudential supervision of credit institutions and investment firms, 
amending  Directive  2002/87/EC  and  repealing  Directives  2006/48/EC  and  2006/49/EC  (OJ  L  176, 
27.6.2013, p. 338). 

EN 

27 

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(11)  Furthermore, this Directive should not apply to environmental information reported by 
undertakings that apply European sustainability reporting standards on a mandatory or 
voluntary  basis  in  accordance  with  Directive  2013/34/EU10  and  sustainability 
information reported on a voluntary basis by undertakings defined in articles 3(1), 3(2) or 
3(3)  of  this  Directive  where  that  information  is  reported  in  accordance  with  standards 
referred to in Articles 29b or 29c of Directive 2013/34/EU or in accordance with other 
international, European or national sustainability reporting standards or guidelines. 

(12)  Offers  to  purchase  goods  or  receive  services  conditional  on  the  fulfilment  of 
environmental  criteria  defined  by  the  seller  or  service  provider  or  offers  where 
consumers receive more favourable contractual terms or prices upon the fulfilment of 
such criteria, for example the so-called green loans, green home insurance or financial 
service  products  with  similar  rewards  for  environmental  actions  or  behaviour  should 
not be subject to the rules of this Directive.  

(13) 

In  case  future  Union  legislation  lays  down  rules  on  environmental  claims, 
environmental  labels,  or  on  the  assessment  or  communication  of  environmental 
impacts,  environmental  aspects  or  environmental  performance  of  certain  products  or 
traders  in  specific  sectors,  for  example  the  announced  “Count  Emissions  EU”,  the 
forthcoming Commission proposal on a legislative framework for a Union sustainable 
food system, the Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation11 or Regulation (EU) 
No 1007/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council12, those rules should be 
applied to the explicit environmental claims in question instead of the rules set out in 
this Directive.  

(14)  The proposal for a Directive on empowering consumers for the green transition which 
amends  Directive  2005/29/EC,  sets  out  a  number  of  specific  requirements  on 
environmental claims and prohibits generic environmental claims which are not based 
on recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to the claim. Examples of 
such generic environmental claims are ‘eco-friendly’, ‘eco’, ‘green’, ‘nature’s friend’, 
‘ecological’  and  ‘environmentally  correct’.  This  Directive  should  complement  the 
requirements set out in that proposal by addressing specific aspects and requirements 
for  explicit  environmental  claims  as  regards  their  substantiation,  communication  and 
verification. The requirements set out in this Directive should apply to specific aspects 
of  explicit  environmental  claims  and  will  prevail  over  the  requirements  set  out  in 
Directive  2005/29/EC  with  regard  to  those  aspects  in  case  of  conflict,  pursuant  to 
Article 3(4) of that Directive. 

(15) 

In order to ensure that consumers are provided with reliable, comparable and verifiable 
information which enables them to make more environmentally sustainable decisions 
and to  reduce the risk of ‘greenwashing, it is  necessary to  establish requirements for 
substantiation  of  explicit  environmental  claims.  Such  substantiation  should  take  into 
account internationally recognised scientific approaches to identifying and measuring 

10 

11 
12 

Directive  2013/34/EU  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  26  June  2013 on  the  annual 
financial  statements,  consolidated  financial  statements  and  related  reports  of  certain  types  of 
undertakings,  amending  Directive  2006/43/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  and 
repealing Council Directives 78/660/EEC and 83/349/EEC (OJ L 182, 29.6.2013, p. 19). 
COM(2022) 132 final 
Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2011 
on textile fibre names and related labelling and marking of the fibre composition of textile products and 
repealing  Council  Directive  73/44/EEC  and  Directives  96/73/EC  and  2008/121/EC  of  the  European 
Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 272, 18.10.2011, p. 1). 

EN 

28 

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environmental  impacts,  environmental  aspects  and  environmental  performance  of 
products  or  traders,  and  it  should  result  in  reliable,  transparent,  comparable  and 
verifiable information to the consumer. 

(16)  The assessment made to substantiate explicit environmental claims needs to consider 
the  life-cycle  of  the  product  or  of  the  overall  activities  of  the  trader  and  should  not 
omit  any  relevant  environmental  aspects  or  environmental  impacts.    The  benefits 
claimed should not result in an unjustified transfer of negative impacts to other stages 
of the life cycle of a product or trader, or to the creation or increase of other negative 
environmental impacts. 

(17)  The  assessment  substantiating  the  explicit  environmental  claim  should  make  it 
possible  to  identify  the  environmental  impacts  and  environmental  aspects  for  the 
product  or  trader  that  jointly  contribute  significantly  to  the  overall  environmental 
performance of the product or trader (‘relevant  environmental impacts’ and ‘relevant 
environmental  aspects’).  Indications  for  the  relevance  of  the  environmental  impacts 
and  environmental  aspects  can  stem  from  assessments  taking  into  account  the  life-
cycle,  including  from  the  studies  based  on  Environmental  Footprint  (EF)  methods, 
provided that these are complete on the impacts relevant to the product category and 
do  not  omit  any  important  environmental  impacts.  For  example,  in  the  Commission 
Recommendation on the use of Environmental Footprint methods13 the most relevant 
impact  categories  identified  should  together  contribute  to  at  least  80%  of  the  single 
overall  score.  These  indications  for  the  relevance  of  the  environmental  impacts  or 
environmental aspects can also result from the criteria set in various ecolabels type I, 
as  for  instance  the  EU  Ecolabel,  or  in  Union  criteria  for  green  public  procurement, 
from  requirements  set  by  the  Taxonomy  Regulation14,  from  product  specific  rules 
adopted under the Regulation …./…. of the European Parliament and of the Council 
establishing a framework for setting ecodesign requirements for sustainable products15 
or from other relevant Union rules. 

(18) 

In  line  with  Directive  2005/29/EC  as  amended  by  the  proposal  for  a  Directive  on 
empowering  consumers  for  the  green  transition,  the  trader  should  not  present 
requirements  imposed  by  law  on  products  within  a  given  product  category  as  a 
distinctive  feature  of  the  trader’s  offer  or  advertise  benefits  for  consumers  that  are 
considered  as  common  practice  in  the  relevant  market.  The  information  used  to 
substantiate explicit environmental claims should therefore make it possible to identify 
the  product’s  or  trader’s  environmental  performance  in  comparison  to  the  common 
practice for products in the respective product group, such as food, or in the respective 
sector.  This 
the  explicit 
environmental claims can be made with regard to a given product or trader in line with 
the  function  of  an  environmental  claim,  which  is  to  demonstrate  that  a  product  or 
trader  has  a positive impact  or no impact on the environment,  or that  a  product  or a 
trader is less damaging to the environment than other products or traders. The common 
practice could be equivalent to the minimum legal requirements that are applicable to 

the  assessment  whether 

is  necessary 

to  underpin 

13 

14 

15 

Commission Recommendation (EU) 2021/2279 of 15 December 2021 on the use of the Environmental 
Footprint methods to measure and communicate the life cycle environmental performance of products 
and organisations, OJ L 471, 30.12.2021, p. 1. 
Regulation  (EU)  2020/852  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  18  June  2020  on  the 
establishment  of  a  framework  to  facilitate  sustainable  investment,  and  amending  Regulation  (EU) 
2019/2088 (OJ L 198, 22.6.2020, p. 13). 
[…] 

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(19) 

(20) 

the  specific  environmental  aspect  or  environmental  performance,  for  example  as 
regards  product  composition,  mandatory  recycled  content  or  end-of-life  treatment. 
However, in case majority of products within the product group or majority of traders 
within  the  sector  perform  better  than  those  legal  requirements,  the  minimum  legal 
requirements should not be considered as common practice. 

It would be misleading to consumers if an explicit environmental claim pointed to the 
benefits  in  terms  of  environmental  impacts  or  environmental  aspects  while  omitting 
that  the  achievement  of  those  benefits  leads  to  negative  trade-offs  on  other 
environmental impacts or environmental aspects. To this end the information used to 
substantiate  explicit  environmental  claims  should  ensure  that  the  interlinkages 
between  the  relevant  environmental  impacts  and  between  environmental  aspects  and 
environmental  impacts  can  be  identified  along  with  potential  trade-offs.  The 
assessment  used  to  substantiate  explicit  environmental  claims  should  identify  if 
improvements on environmental impacts or environmental aspects lead to the kind of 
trade-offs  that  significantly  worsen  the  performance  as  regards  other  environmental 
impacts or environmental aspects, for example if savings in water consumption lead to 
a notable increase in greenhouse gas emissions, or in the same environmental impact 
in  another  life-cycle  stage  of  the  product,  for  example  CO2  savings  in  the  stage  of 
manufacturing  leading  to  a  notable  increase  of  CO2  emissions  in  the  use  phase.  For 
example,  a  claim  on  positive  impacts  from  efficient  use  of  resources  in  intensive 
agricultural  practices  may  mislead  consumers  due  to  trade-offs  linked  to  impacts  on 
biodiversity,  ecosystems  or  animal  welfare.  An  environmental  claim  on  textiles 
containing plastic polymer from recycled PET bottles may also mislead consumers as 
to the environmental benefit of that aspect if the use of this recycled polymer competes 
with the closed-loop recycling system for food contact materials which is considered 
more beneficial from the perspective of circularity. 

In  order  for  the  environmental  claim  to  be  considered  robust,  it  should  reflect  as 
accurately as possible the environmental performance of the specific product or trader. 
The information used to substantiate explicit environmental claims therefore needs to 
include primary, company-specific data for relevant aspects contributing significantly 
to the environmental performance of the product or trader referred to in the claim. It is 
necessary to strike the right balance between ensuring relevant and robust information 
for  substantiating  environmental  claims  and  the  efforts  needed  to  gather  primary 
information. The requirement to use primary information should be considered in the 
light of the influence the trader making the claim has over the respective process and 
of  the  availability  of  primary  information.  If  the  process  is  not  run  by  the  trader 
making  the  claim  and  primary  information  is  not  available,  accurate  secondary 
information should be able to be used even for processes that contribute significantly 
to the environmental performance of the product or trader. This is especially relevant 
to not disadvantage SMEs and to keep the efforts needed to acquire primary data at a 
proportionate  level.  Moreover,  the  relevant  environmental  aspects  are  different  for 
each  type  of  environmental  claim.  For  instance,  for  claims  on  recycled  or  bio-based 
content, the composition of the product should be covered by primary data. For claims 
on  being  environmentally  less  polluting  in  a  certain  life  cycle  stage,  information  on 
emissions  and  environmental  impacts  related  to  that  life  cycle  stage  should  include 
primary data as well. Both primary data and secondary data, i.e. average data, should 
show a high level of quality and accuracy.  

(21)  Climate-related claims have been shown to be particularly prone to being unclear and 
ambiguous  and  to  mislead  consumers.  This  relates  notably  to  environmental  claims 

EN 

30 

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that  products  or  entities  are  “climate  neutral”,  “carbon  neutral”,  “100%  CO2 
compensated”, or will be “net-zero” by a  given year, or similar. Such statements  are 
often  based  on  “offsetting”  of  greenhouse  gas  emissions  through  “carbon  credits” 
generated outside the company’s value chain, for example from forestry or renewable 
energy  projects.  The  methodologies  underpinning  offsets  vary  widely  and  are  not 
always  transparent,  accurate,  or  consistent.  This  leads  to  significant  risks  of 
overestimations and double counting of avoided or reduced emissions, due to a lack of 
additionality, permanence, ambitious and dynamic crediting baselines that depart from 
business as usual, and accurate accounting. These factors result in offset credits of low 
environmental  integrity  and  credibility  that  mislead  consumers  when  they  are  relied 
upon in explicit environmental claims. Offsetting can also deter traders from emissions 
reductions in their own operations and value chains. In order to adequately contribute 
to  global  climate  change  mitigation  targets,  traders  should  prioritise  effective 
reductions of emissions across their own operations and value chains instead of relying 
on  offsets.  Any  resulting  residual  emissions  will  vary  by  sector-specific  pathway  in 
line  with  the  global  climate  targets  and  will  have  to  be  addressed  through  removals 
enhancements. When offsets are used nonetheless, it is deemed appropriate to address 
climate-related  claims,  including  claims  on  future  environmental  performance,  based 
on  offsets  in  a  transparent  manner.  Therefore,  the  substantiation  of  climate-related 
claims  should  consider  any  greenhouse  gas  emissions  offsets  used  by  the  traders 
separately  from  the  trader’s  or  the  product’s  greenhouse  gas  emissions.  In  addition, 
this  information  should  also  specify  the  share  of  total  emissions  that  are  addressed 
through  offsetting,  whether  these  offsets  relate  to  emission  reductions  or  removals 
enhancement,  and  the  methodology  applied.  The  climate-related  claims  that  include 
the use of offsets have to be substantiated by methodologies that ensure the integrity 
and  correct  accounting  of  these  offsets  and  thus  reflect  coherently  and  transparently 
the resulting impact on the climate. 

(22)  Traders are more and more interested in making environmental claims related to future 
environmental performance of a product or trader, including by joining initiatives that 
are promoting practices which could be conducive to a reduced environmental impact 
or  to  more  circularity.  These  claims  should  be  substantiated  in  line  with  the  rules 
applicable to all explicit environmental claims. 

(23)  The information used to substantiate explicit environmental claims should be science 
impacts  or 

lack  of  consideration  of  certain  environmental 

based,  and  any 
environmental aspects should be carefully considered. 

(24)  The  EF  methods  can  support  the  substantiation  of  explicit  environmental  claims  on 
specific life-cycle environmental impacts that the methods cover, provided that these 
are  complete  on  the  impacts  relevant  to  the  product  category  and  do  not  omit  any 
important  environmental  impacts.  The  methods  cover  16  environmental  impacts, 
including  climate  change,  and  impacts  related  to  water,  air,  soil,  resources,  land  use 
and toxicity.  

(25)  The fact that a significant environmental impact of a product is not covered by any of 
the 16 impact categories of the EF methods should not justify the lack of consideration 
of such impacts. An economic actor making an explicit environmental claim on such 
product  group  should  have  an  obligation  of  diligence  to  find  evidence  substantiating 
such claim.  For instance, an  economic  actor making an  explicit environmental claim 
about  a fishery  product  as defined in  Article 5 of Regulation  (EU)  No 1379/2013  of 

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the European Parliament and of the Council16 should have an obligation of diligence to 
find  evidence  substantiating  the  sustainability  of  the  targeted  fish  stock.  Stock 
assessments  by  the  International  Council  for  the  Exploration  of  the  Sea  and  similar 
stock assessment bodies can be used for that purpose. 

(26)  Furthermore,  there  is  not  yet  a  reliable  methodology  for  the  assessment  of  life-cycle 
environmental impacts  related to  the release of  microplastics. However,  in  case such 
release contributes to significant environmental impacts that are not subject to a claim, 
the trader making the claim on another aspect should not be allowed to ignore it, but 
should take into account available information and update the assessment once widely 
recognised scientific evidence becomes available.  

traders 

than  other  products  or 

(27)  Consumers can also be misled by explicit environmental claims that state or imply that 
a  product  or  trader  has  less  or  more  environmental  impacts  or  a  better  or  worse 
environmental  performance 
(‘comparative 
environmental  claims’).  Without  prejudice  to  the  application,  where  appropriate,  of 
Directive  2006/114/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council17,  in  order  to 
allow  the  consumers  access  to  reliable  information,  it  is  necessary  to  ensure  that 
comparative  environmental  claims  can  be  compared  in  an  adequate  manner.  For 
instance, choosing indicators on the same environmental aspects but using a different 
formula  for  quantification  of  such  indicators  makes  comparisons  impossible,  and 
therefore  there  is  a  risk  of  misleading  consumers.    In  case  two  traders  make  an 
environmental  claim  on  climate  change,  where  one  considered  only  direct 
environmental  impacts,  whilst  the  other  considered  both  direct  and  indirect 
environmental impacts, these results are not comparable. Also, a decision to make the 
comparison  only  at  certain  stages  of  a  products  life  cycle  can  lead  to  misleading 
claims,  if  not  made  transparent.  A  comparative  environmental  claim  needs  to  ensure 
that also for products with very different raw materials, uses and process chains, like 
bio-based plastics and fossil-based plastics, the most relevant  stages of the life-cycle 
are taken into account for all products. For example, agriculture or forestry is relevant 
for bio-based plastics while raw oil extraction is relevant for fossil-based plastics and 
the  question  whether  a  relevant  share  of  the  product  ends  up  in  landfill  is  highly 
relevant  to  plastics  that  biodegrade  well  under  landfill  conditions  but  maybe  less 
relevant for plastics that do not biodegrade under such conditions. 

(28)  When  setting  up  the  requirements  for  substantiation  and  communication  of  explicit 
environmental  claims,  including  by  delegated  acts  adopted  by  the  Commission,  the 
difficulties that traders may encounter in gathering information from actors throughout 
their value chain or on the product’s overall life-cycle, especially for services or where 
there is insufficient scientific evidence, should be taken into account. This is important 
for example for services such as electronic communications services, for which it can 
be difficult to define the scope and system boundaries, e.g. where the life-cycle starts 
and where it finishes and even more where supply chains are complex and not stable, 
e.g. in cases where many equipment or components are manufactured by a multitude 

16 

17 

Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on 
the  common  organisation  of  the  markets  in  fishery  and  aquaculture  products,  amending  Council 
Regulations  (EC)  No 1184/2006  and  (EC)  No 1224/2009  and  repealing  Council  Regulation  (EC) 
No 104/2000 (OJ L 354, 28.12.2013, p. 1). 
Directive  2006/114/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  12  December  2006 
concerning misleading and comparative advertising (OJ L 376, 27.12.2006, p. 21). 

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of enterprises outside the EU, and thus sustainability related information might not be 
easily accessible to EU traders concerned.  

(29)  For some sectors or for certain products or traders, significant environmental impacts 
or environmental aspects could be suspected but  there might not  yet be a recognised 
scientific  method  to  fully  assess  those  environmental  impacts  and  environmental 
aspects.  For  such  cases  and  while  efforts  are  made  to  develop  methods  and  gather 
evidence  to  enable  the  assessment  of  the  respective  environmental  impact  or 
environmental aspect  for those sectors, traders or products,  traders should be  able to 
promote  their  sustainability  efforts  through  publication  of  company  sustainability 
reporting, factual reporting on the company’s performance metrics and work to reduce 
energy consumption, including on their websites. This flexibility would maintain and 
promote the incentives of those sectors or traders to continue their efforts to develop 
common environmental assessments pursuant to this Directive while providing for the 
necessary time to complete such work.  

(30)  While  unfair  commercial  practices,  including  misleading  environmental  claims,  are 
prohibited for all traders pursuant to Directive 2005/29/EC18, an administrative burden 
linked  to  substantiation  and  verification  of  environmental  claims  on  the  smallest 
companies  could  be  disproportionate  and  should  be  avoided.  To 
this  end, 
microenterprises  should  be  exempted  from  the  requirements  on  substantiation  of 
Article  3  and  4  unless  these  enterprises  wish  to  obtain  a  certificate  of  conformity  of 
explicit  environmental  claims  that  will  be  recognised  by  the  competent  authorities 
across the Union. 

(31) 

In order to meet both the needs of traders regarding dynamic marketing strategies and 
the  needs  of  consumers  regarding  more  detailed,  and  more  accurate,  environmental 
information,  the Commission may adopt  delegated acts  to  supplement the provisions 
on substantiation of explicit environmental claims by further specifying the criteria for 
such substantiation with regard to certain claims (e.g. climate-related claims, including 
claims  about  offsets,  “climate  neutrality”  or  similar,  recyclability  and  recycled 
content).  The  Commission  should  be  empowered  to  further  establish  rules  for 
measuring  and  calculating  the  environmental  impacts,  environmental  aspects  and 
environmental  performance,  by  determining  which  activities,  processes,  materials, 
emissions or use of a product or trader contribute significantly or cannot contribute to 
the  relevant  environmental  impacts  and  environmental  aspects;  by  determining  for 
which  environmental  aspects  and  environmental  impacts  primary  information  should 
be  used;  and  by  determining  the  criteria  to  assess  the  accuracy  of  primary  and 
secondary information. While in most cases the Commission would consider the need 
for adopting these rules only after having the results of the monitoring of the evolution 
of  environmental  claims  on  the  Union  market,  for  some  types  of  claims  it  may  be 
necessary for the Commission to adopt supplementary rules before the results of this 
monitoring  are  available.  For  example,  in  case  of  climate-related  claims  it  may  be 
necessary to adopt such supplementary acts in order to operationalise the provisions on 
substantiation of claims based on offsets. 

18 

Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2005 concerning unfair 
business-to-consumer  commercial  practices  in  the  internal  market  and  amending  Council  Directive 
84/450/EEC,  Directives  97/7/EC,  98/27/EC  and  2002/65/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 
Council  and  Regulation  (EC)  No  2006/2004  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  (Unfair 
Commercial Practices Directive) (OJ L 149, 11.6.2005, p. 22) as amended. 

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the 

(32)  The  Commission  Recommendation  (EU)  2021/2279  contains  guidance  on  how  to 
life  cycle  environmental  performance  of  specific  products  or 
measure 
organisations  and  how  to  develop  Product  Environmental  Footprint  Category  Rules 
(PEFCRs)  and  Organisation  Environmental  Footprint  Sectorial  Rules  (OEFSRs)  that 
allow  comparison  of  products  to  a  benchmark.  Such  category  rules  for  specific 
products or traders can be used to support the substantiation of claims in line with the 
requirements  of  this  Directive.  Therefore,  the  Commission  should  be  empowered  to 
adopt delegated acts to establish product group or sector specific rules where this may 
have added value. However, in case the Product Environmental Footprint method does 
not yet cover an impact category, which is relevant for a product group, the adoption 
of  PEFCR  may  take  place  only  once  these  new  relevant  environmental  impact 
categories  have  been  added.  For  example,  as  regards  marine  fisheries,  the  PEFCR 
should  for  example  reflect  the  fisheries-specific  environmental  impact  categories,  in 
particular  the  sustainability  of  the  targeted  stock.  Concerning  space,  the  PEFCR 
should reflect  defence  and space-specific  environmental  impact  categories,  including 
the  orbital  space  use.  As  regards  food  and  agricultural  products,  biodiversity  and 
nature  protection,  as  well  as  farming  practices,  including  positive  externalities  of 
extensive farming and animal welfare, should, for example, also be integrated before 
the  adoption  of  PEFCR  could  be  considered.  As  regards  textiles,  the  PEFCR  should 
for example reflect the microplastics release, before the adoption of PEFCR could be 
considered.  

(33)  Since  Directive  2005/29/EC  already  applies  to  misleading  environmental  claims,  it 
enables  the  national  courts  and  administrative  authorities  to  stop  and  prohibit  such 
claims.  For  example,  in  order  to  comply  with  Directive  2005/29/EC,  environmental 
claims  should  relate  only  to  aspects  that  are  significant  in  terms  of  the  product’s  or 
trader’s  environmental  impact.  Environmental  claims  should  also  be  clear  and 
unambiguous regarding which aspects of the product or trader they refer to and should 
not  omit  or  hide  important  information  about  the  environmental  performance  of  the 
product  or  trader  that  consumers  need  in  order  to  make  informed  choices.  The 
wording,  imagery  and  overall  product  presentation,  including  the  layout,  choice  of 
colours,  images,  pictures,  sounds,  symbols  or  labels,  included  in  the  environmental 
claim  should  provide  a  truthful  and  accurate  representation  of  the  scale  of  the 
environmental  benefit  achieved,  and  should  not  overstate  the  environmental  benefit 
achieved. 

(34)  Where  the  explicit  environmental  claim  concerns  a  final  product  and  relevant 
environmental  impacts  or  environmental  aspects  of  such  product  occur  at  the  use 
phase  and  consumers  can  influence  such  environmental  impacts  or  environmental 
aspects  via  appropriate  behaviour,  such  as,  for  example,  correct  waste  sorting  or 
impacts  of  use  patterns  on  product’s  longevity,  the  claim  should  also  include 
information explaining to consumers how their behaviour can positively contribute to 
the protection of the environment. 

(35) 

In  order  to  facilitate  consumers’  choices  of  more  sustainable  products  and  to 
incentivise  efforts  of  traders  to  lower  their  environmental  impacts,  when  the  claim 
communicated relates to future environmental performance, it should as a priority be 
based  on  improvements  inside  trader’s  own  operations  and  value  chains  rather  than 
relying on offsetting of greenhouse has emissions or other environmental impacts. 

(36)  Consumers should have easy access to the information on the product or the trader that 
is  the  subject  of  the  explicit  environmental  claim  and  regarding  information 
substantiating  that  claim.  This  information  should  also  consider  needs  of  older 

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34 

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consumers.  For  that  purpose,  traders  should  either  provide  this  information  in  a 
physical form or provide a weblink, QR code or equivalent leading to a website where 
more detailed information on the substantiation of the explicit environmental claim is 
made available in at least one of the official languages of the Member State where the 
claim is made. In order to facilitate the enforcement of this Directive, the weblink, QR 
code  or  equivalent  should  also  ensure  easy  access  to  the  certificate  of  conformity 
regarding  the  substantiation  of  the  explicit  environmental  claim  and  the  contact 
information of the verifier who drew up that certificate. 

(37) 

In  order  to  avoid  potential  disproportionate  impacts  on  the  microenterprises,  the 
smallest companies should be exempted from the requirements of Article 5 linked to 
information  on  the  substantiation  of  explicit  environmental  claims  unless  these 
enterprises wish  to  obtain a certificate of conformity of explicit environmental claim 
that will be recognised by the competent authorities across the Union. 

(38)  When  the  Commission  adopts  delegated  acts  to  supplement  the  provisions  on 
substantiation of explicit environmental claims it may be necessary to also supplement 
the  provisions  on  communication  of  such  claims.  For  example,  in  case  specific  life-
cycle-based  rules  on  substantiation  of  explicit  environmental  claims  for  certain 
products  group  or  sector  are  established,  it  may  be  necessary  to  add  supplementary 
rules  on  presentation  of  environmental  impacts  assessed  based  on  these  rules  by 
requiring that three main environmental impacts are presented next to the aggregated 
indicator  of  overall  environmental  performance.  To  this  end  the  Commission  should 
be empowered to adopt delegated acts to supplement the provisions on communication 
of explicit environmental claims. 

(39)  Currently,  more  than  200  environmental  labels  are  used  on  the  Union  market.  They 
present  important  differences  in  how  they  operate  as  regards  for  example  the 
transparency and comprehensiveness of the standards or methods used, the frequency 
of revisions, or the level of auditing or verification. These differences have an impact 
on how reliable the information communicated on the environmental labels is. While 
claims  based  on  the  EU  Ecolabel  or  its  national  equivalents  follow  a  solid  scientific 
basis,  have  a  transparent  development  of  criteria,  require  testing  and  third-party 
verification  and 
that  many 
environmental labels  currently on the EU market are misleading.  In particular, many 
environmental  labels  lack  sufficient  verification  procedures.  Therefore,  explicit 
environmental claims made on environmental labels should be based on a certification 
scheme.   

regular  monitoring,  evidence  suggests 

foresee 

(40) 

In  cases  where  an  environmental  label  involves  a  commercial  communication  to 
consumers that suggests or creates the impression  that a product has a positive or no 
impact  on  the  environment,  or  is  less  damaging  to  the  environment  than  competing 
products  without  the  label,  that  environmental  label  also  constitutes  an  explicit 
environmental claim.  The content of such environmental  label  is  therefore subject  to 
the  requirements  on  substantiation  and  communication  of  explicit  environmental 
claims. 

(41)  The  environmental  labels  often  aim  at  providing  consumers  with  an  aggregated 
scoring presenting a cumulative environmental impact of products or traders to allow 
for direct comparisons between products or traders. Such aggregated scoring however 
presents risks of misleading consumers as the aggregated indicator may dilute negative 
environmental  impacts  of  certain  aspects  of  the  product  with  more  positive 
environmental impacts of other aspects of the product. In addition, when developed by 

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35 

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different  operators,  such  labels  usually  differ  in  terms  of  specific  methodology 
underlying the aggregated score such as the environmental impacts considered or the 
weighting  attributed  to  these  environmental  impacts.  This  may  result  in  the  same 
product  receiving  different  score  or  rating  depending  on  the  scheme.  This  concern 
arises  in  relation  to  schemes  established  in  the  Union  and  in  third  countries.  This  is 
contributing  to  the  fragmentation  of  the  internal  market,  risks  putting  smaller 
companies  at  a  disadvantage,  and  is  likely  to  further  mislead  consumers  and 
undermine  their  trust  in  environmental  labels.  In  order  to  avoid  this  risk  and  ensure 
better  harmonisation  within  the  single  market,  the  explicit  environmental  claims, 
including  environmental  labels,  based  on  an  aggregated  score  representing  a 
cumulative  environmental  impact  of  products  or  traders  should  not  be  deemed  to  be 
sufficiently  substantiated,  unless  those  aggregated  scores  stem  from  Union  rules, 
including  the  delegated  acts  that  the  Commission  is  empowered  to  adopt  under  this 
Directive, resulting in Union-wide harmonised schemes for all products or per specific 
product group based on a single methodology to ensure coherence and comparability. 

In  accordance  with  the  proposal  for  a  Directive  on  empowering  consumers  for  the 
green transition, which amends Directive 2005/29/EC, displaying a sustainability label 
which  is  not  based  on  a  certification  scheme  or  not  established  by  public  authorities 
constitutes  an  unfair  commercial  practice  in  all  circumstances.  This  means  that  the 
‘self-certified’  sustainability  labels,  where  no  third-party  verification  and  regular 
monitoring takes place as regards compliance with the underlying requirements of the 
sustainability label are prohibited.  

In  order  to  combat  misleading  explicit  environmental  claims  communicated  in  the 
form of environmental labels and increase consumer trust in environmental labels, this 
Directive should establish governance criteria that all environmental labelling schemes 
are  to  comply  with,  complementing  thus  the  requirements  set  in  the  said  proposal 
amending Directive 2005/29/EC.  

In order to avoid further proliferation of national or regional officially recognised EN 
ISO  14024  type  I  environmental  labelling  (‘ecolabelling’)  schemes,  and  other 
environmental  labelling  schemes,  and  to  ensure  more  harmonisation  in  the  internal 
market,  new  national  or  regional  environmental  labelling  schemes  should  be 
developed  only  under  the  Union  law.  Nevertheless,  Member  States  can  request  the 
Commission  to  consider  developing  public  labelling  schemes  at  the  Union  level  for 
product groups or sectors where such labels do not yet exist in Union law and where 
harmonisation  would  bring  added  value  to  achieve  the  sustainability  and  internal 
market objectives in an efficient manner. 

In  order  not  to  create  unnecessary  barriers  to  international  trade  and  to  ensure  equal 
treatment  with  the  public  schemes  established  in  the  Union,  the  public  authorities 
outside  of  the  Union  setting  up  new  labelling  schemes  should  be  allowed  to  request 
approval from the Commission for use of the label on the Union market. This approval 
should be conditional on the scheme’s contribution to reaching the objectives of this 
Directive  and  provided  that  the  schemes  demonstrate  added  value  in  terms  of 
environmental ambition, coverage of environmental impacts, product  group or sector 
and meet all the requirements of this Directive. 

(42) 

(43) 

(44) 

(45) 

(46)  Environmental  labelling  schemes  established  by  private  operators,  if  too  many  and 
overlapping in terms of scope, may create confusion in consumers or undermine their 
trust  in  environmental  labels.  Therefore,  Member  States  should  only  allow  that  new 
environmental  labelling  schemes  are  established  by  private  operators  provided  that 

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(47) 

(48) 

they  offer  significant  added  value  as  compared  to  the  existing  national  or  regional 
schemes  in  terms  of  environmental  ambition  of  the  criteria  to  award  the  label, 
coverage  of  relevant  environmental  impacts,  and  completeness  of  the  underlying 
assessment.  Member  States  should  set  up  a  procedure  for  the  approval  of  new 
environmental labelling schemes based on a certificate of conformity drawn up by the 
independent  verifier.  This  should  apply  to  schemes  established  in  the  Union  and 
outside of the Union.  

In order to provide legal certainty and facilitate enforcement of the provisions on new 
national  and regional officially recognised environmental  labelling schemes and new 
private labelling schemes, the Commission should publish a list of such schemes that 
may either continue to apply on the Union market or enter the Union market. 

In order to ensure a harmonised approach by the Member States to the assessment and 
approval  of  environmental  labelling  schemes  developed  by  private  operators,  and  to 
establish an approval procedure by the Commission for proposed schemes established 
by public authorities outside of the Union, implementing powers should be conferred 
on  the  Commission  to  adopt  common  rules  specifying  detailed  requirements  for 
approval  of  such  environmental  labelling  schemes,  the  format  and  content  of 
supporting documents and rules of procedure to approve such schemes. Those powers 
should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European 
Parliament and of the Council19. 

(49) 

It  is  essential  that  explicit  environmental  claims  reflect  correctly  the  environmental 
performance and environmental impacts covered by the claim, and consider the latest 
scientific evidence. Member States should therefore ensure that the trader making the 
claim reviews and updates  the substantiation and communication of the claims at least 
every 5 years to ensure compliance with the requirements of this Directive 

(50)  To ensure that explicit environmental claims are reliable, it is necessary that Member 
States  set  up  procedure  for  verifying  that  the  substantiation  and  communication  of 
explicit  environmental  claims,  including  environmental  labels,  or  the  environmental 
labelling schemes, comply with the requirements set out in this Directive.  

(51) 

In  order  to  allow  the  competent  authorities  to  control  more  efficiently  the 
implementation of the provisions of this Directive and to prevent as much as possible 
unsubstantiated  explicit  environmental  claims,  including  environmental  labels,  from 
appearing on the market, verifiers complying with the harmonised requirements set up 
by the Directive should check that both the information used for the substantiation and 
communication  of  explicit  environmental  claims  meet  the  requirements  of  this 
Directive. In order to avoid misleading consumers, the verification should in any case 
take  place  before  the  environmental  claims  are  made  public  or  environmental  labels 
are displayed. The verifier can, if appropriate, indicate several ways of communicating 
the explicit environmental claim that comply with the requirements of this Directive to 
avoid  the  need  for  continuous  re-certification  in  case  the  way  of  communication  is 
slightly  modified  without  affecting  the  compliance  with  the  requirements  of  this 
Directive.  To  facilitate  the  traders  compliance  with  the  rules  on  substantiation  and 
communication of explicit environmental claims, including the environmental labels, 
the  verification  should  take  into  account  the  nature  and  content  of  the  claim  or  the 

19 

Regulation  (EU)  No  182/2011  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  16  February  2011 
laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of 
the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers (OJ L 55, 28.2.2011, p. 13). 

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37 

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(52) 

(53) 

environmental  label,  including  whether  they  appear  to  be  unfair  in  the  light  of 
Directive 2005/29/EC. 

In  order  to  provide  traders  with  legal  certainty  across  the  internal  market  as  regards 
compliance  of  the  explicit  environmental  claims  with  the  requirements  of  this 
Directive,  the  certificate  of  conformity  should  be  recognised  by  the  competent 
authorities  across  the  Union.  Microenterprises  should  be  allowed  to  request  such 
certificate  if  they  wish  to  certify  their  claims  in  line  with  the  requirements  of  this 
Directive  and  benefit  from  the  certificate’s  recognition  across  the  Union.  The 
certificate  of  conformity  should  however  not  prejudge  the  assessment  of  the 
environmental  claim  by  the  public  authorities  or  courts  which  enforce  Directive 
2005/29/EC. 

In  order  to  ensure  uniform  conditions  for  the  provisions  on  verification  of  explicit 
environmental  claims  and  environmental  labelling  schemes  and  to  facilitate  the 
enforcement of the provisions on verification of this Directive, implementing powers 
should  be  conferred  on  the  Commission  to  adopt  a  common  form  for  certificates  of 
conformity and the technical means for issuing such certificates. Those powers should 
be  exercised  in  accordance  with  Regulation  (EU)  No  182/2011  of  the  European 
Parliament and of the Council20. 

(54)  Small  and  medium-sized  enterprises  (SMEs)  should  be  able  to  benefit  from  the 
opportunities provided by the market for more sustainable products but they could face 
proportionately  higher  costs  and  difficulties  with  some  of  the  requirements  on 
substantiation  and  verification  of  explicit  environmental  claims.  The  Member  States 
should provide adequate information and raise awareness of the ways to comply with 
the  requirements  of  this  Directive,  ensure  targeted  and  specialised  training,  and 
provide specific assistance and support, including financial, to SMEs wishing to make 
explicit environmental claims on their products or as regards their activities. Member 
States actions should be taken in respect of applicable State aid rules. 

(55) 

(56) 

In order to ensure a level-playing field on the Union market, where claims about the 
environmental performance of a product or a trader are based on reliable, comparable 
and verifiable information, it is necessary to  establish common rules on enforcement 
and compliance. 

In  order  to  ensure  that  the  objectives  of  this  Directive  are  achieved  and  the 
requirements  are  enforced  effectively,  Member  States  should  designate  their  own 
competent  authorities  responsible  for  the  application  and  enforcement  of  this 
Directive. However, in view of the close complementarity of Articles 5 and 6 of this 
Directive with the provisions of Directive 2005/29/EC, Member States should also be 
allowed  to  designate  for  their  enforcement  the  same  competent  authorities  as  those 
responsible for the enforcement of Directive 2005/29/EC. For the sake of consistency, 
when Member States make that choice, they should be able to rely on the means and 
powers  of  enforcement  that  they  have  established  in  accordance  with  Article  11  of 
Directive 2005/29/EC, in derogation from the rules on enforcement laid down in this 
Directive.  In  cases  where  there  is  more  than  one  designated  competent  authority  in 
their  territory  and  to  ensure  effective  exercise  of  the  duties  of  the  competent 

20 

Regulation  (EU)  No  182/2011  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  16  February  2011 
laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of 
the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers (OJ L 55, 28.2.2011, p. 13). 

EN 

38 

  EN 

                                                 
authorities,  Member  State  should  ensure  a  close  cooperation  between  all  designated 
competent authorities. 

(57)  Without prejudice to the powers already conferred by Regulation (EU) 2017/239421 to 
consumer protection authorities, competent authorities should have a minimum set of 
investigation  and  enforcement  powers  in  order  to  ensure  compliance  with  this 
Directive, to cooperate with each other more quickly and more efficiently, and to deter 
market  actors  from  infringing  this  Directive.  Those  powers  should  be  sufficient  to 
tackle  the  enforcement  challenges  of  e-commerce  and  the  digital  environment 
effectively  and  to  prevent  non-compliant  market  actors  from  exploiting  gaps  in  the 
enforcement system by relocating to Member States whose competent authorities may 
be less equipped to tackle unlawful practices. 

(58)  Competent authorities should be able to use all facts and circumstances of the case as 

evidence for the purpose of their investigation. 

(59) 

In  order  to  prevent  the  occurrence  of  misleading  and  unsubstantiated  explicit 
environmental  claims  on  the  Union  market,  competent  authorities  should  carry  out 
regular checks of explicit environmental claims made, and the environmental labelling 
schemes  applied,  to  verify  that  the  requirements  laid  down  in  this  Directive  are 
fulfilled. 

(60)  When competent authorities detect  an infringement  of requirements of this Directive 
they should carry out an evaluation and based on its results notify the trader about the 
infringement  detected  and  require  that  corrective  actions  are  taken  by  the  trader.  To 
minimise  the  misleading  effect  on  consumers  of  the  non-compliant  explicit 
environmental  claim  or  non-compliant  environmental  labelling  scheme,  the  trader 
should be required by the competent authorities to take an effective and rapid action to 
remediate that infringement. The corrective action required should be proportionate to 
the infringement detected and its expected harmful effects on the consumers. 

(61)  Where  an  infringement  is  not  restricted  to  their  national  territory,  and  the  explicit 
environmental claim has been advanced between traders, competent authorities should 
inform the other Member States of the results of evaluation they have carried out and 
of any action that they have required the trader responsible to take. 

(62)  Competent  authorities  should  also  carry  out  checks  of  explicit  environmental  claims 
on  the  Union  market  when  in  possession  of  and  based  on  relevant  information, 
including substantiated concerns submitted by third parties. Third parties submitting a 
concern should be able to demonstrate a sufficient interest or maintain the impairment 
of a right. 

(63) 

In order to ensure that traders are effectively dissuaded from non-compliance with the 
requirements  of  this  Directive,  Member  States  should  lay  down  rules  on  penalties 
applicable  to  infringements  of  this  Directive  and  ensure  that  those  rules  are 
implemented.  The  penalties  provided  for  should  be  effective,  proportionate  and 
dissuasive.  To  facilitate  a  more  consistent  application  of  penalties,  it  is  necessary  to 
establish  common  non-exhaustive  criteria  for  determining  the  types  and  levels  of 
penalties  to  be  imposed  in  case  of  infringements.  That  criteria  should  include,  inter 

21 

Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2017 on 
cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws 
and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 (OJ L 345, 27.12.2017, p. 1). 

EN 

39 

  EN 

                                                 
 
alia,  the  nature  and  gravity  of  the  infringement  as  well  as  the  economic  benefits 
derived from the infringement in order to ensure that those responsible are deprived of 
those benefits.  

(64)  When  setting  penalties  and  measures  for  infringements,  the  Member  States  should 
foresee  that,  based  on  the  gravity  of  the  infringement,  the  level  of  fines  should 
effectively deprive the non-compliant trader from the economic benefit  derived from 
using the misleading or unsubstantiated explicit environmental claim or non-compliant 
environmental  labelling  scheme,  including  in  cases  of  repeated  infringements.  The 
measures  for  infringements  foreseen  by  the  Member  States  should  therefore  also 
include confiscation of the relevant  product  from the trader or revenues  gained from 
the  transactions  affected  by  this  infringement  or  a  temporary  exclusions  or 
prohibitions from placing products or making available services on the Union market. 
The gravity of the infringement should be the leading criterion for the measures taken 
by  the  enforcement  authorities.  The  maximum  amount  of  fines  should  be  dissuasive 
and set at least at the level of 4% of the trader’s total annual turnover in the Member 
State or Member States concerned in case of  widespread infringements with a Union 
dimension that are subject  to  coordinated investigation  and enforcement  measures in 
accordance with Regulation (EU) 2017/239422. 

(65)  When  adopting  delegated  acts  pursuant  to  Article  290  TFEU,  it  is  of  particular 
importance  that  the  Commission  carry  out  appropriate  consultations  during  its 
preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted 
in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 
April 2016 on Better Law-Making23. In particular, to ensure equal participation in the 
preparation  of  delegated  acts,  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  receive  all 
documents  at  the  same  time  as  Member  States’  experts,  and  their  experts 
systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the 
preparation of delegated acts. 

(66) 

In  order  to  assess  the  performance  of  the  legislation  against  the  objectives  that  it 
pursues, the Commission should carry out an evaluation of this Directive and present a 
report  on  the  main  findings  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council.  In  order  to 
inform  an  evaluation  of  this  Directive,  Member  States  should  regularly  collect 
information on the application of this Directive and provide it to the Commission on 
an annual basis. 

(67)  Where  based  on  the  results  of  the  monitoring  and  evaluation  of  this  Directive  the 
Commission finds it appropriate to propose a review of this Directive, the feasibility 
and appropriateness of further provisions on mandating the use of common method for 
substantiation  of  explicit  environmental  claims,  the  extension  of  prohibition  of 
environmental claims for products containing hazardous substances except where their 
use  is  considered  essential  for  the  society,  or  further  harmonisation  as  regards 
requirements on the substantiation of specific environmental claims on environmental 
aspects or environmental impacts should also be considered. 

(68)  The use of the most harmful substances should ultimately be phased-out in the Union 
to  avoid  and  prevent  significant  harm  to  human  health  and  the  environment,  in 

22 

23 

Regulation (EU)  2017/2394 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2017 on 
cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws 
and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 (OJ L 345, 27.12.2017, p. 1). 
OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, p. 1. 

EN 

40 

  EN 

                                                 
particular their use in consumer products. Regulation (EC) 1272/2008 of the European 
Parliament and of the Council24 prohibits the labelling of mixtures and substances that 
contain  hazardous  chemicals  as 
‘non-polluting’, 
‘ecological’  or  any  other  statements  indicating  that  the  substance  or  mixture  is  not 
hazardous or statements  that are inconsistent with the classification of that substance 
or mixture. Member States are required to ensure that such obligation is fulfilled. As 
committed  in  the  Chemicals  Strategy  for  Sustainability  the  Commission  will  define 
criteria for essential uses to guide its application across relevant Union legislation. . 

‘non-harmful’, 

‘non-toxic’, 

(69)  Since  the  objectives  of  this  Directive,  namely  to  improve  the  functioning  of  the 
internal  market  for  economic  actors  operating  in  the  internal  market  and  consumers 
relying  on  environmental  claims,  cannot  be  sufficiently  achieved  by  the  Member 
States, but  can rather, by  reason of its  scale and effects,  be better achieved at  Union 
level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity 
as  set  out  in  Article  5  of  the  Treaty  on  European  Union.  In  accordance  with  the 
principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond 
what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives. 

(70) 

In accordance with  the Joint Political  Declaration of 28 September 2011 of Member 
States  and  the  Commission  on  explanatory  documents25,  Member  States  have 
undertaken  to  accompany,  in  justified  cases,  the  notification  of  their  transposition 
measures  with  one  or  more  documents  explaining  the  relationship  between  the 
components  of  a  directive  and  the  corresponding  parts  of  national  transposition 
instruments. With regard to this Directive, the legislator considers the transmission of 
such documents to be justified. 

(71)  The  Annex  to  Regulation  (EU)  1024/2012  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 
Council26 should be amended to include a reference to this Directive so as to facilitate 
the administrative cooperation between the competent authorities through the Internal 
Market Information System. 

(72)  The  Annex  to  Regulation  (EU)  2017/2394  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 
Council27 should be amended to include a reference to this Directive so as to facilitate 
cross-border cooperation on enforcement of this Directive. 

(73)  Annex I of Directive (EU) 2020/1828 of the European Parliament and of the Council28 
should  be  amended  to  include  a  reference  to  this  Directive  so  as  to  ensure  that  the 
collective interests of consumers laid down in this Directive are protected. 

24 

25 
26 

27 
28 

Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on  
classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures, amending and repealing Directives 
67/548/EEC and 1999/45/EC, and amending Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (OJ L 353, 31.12.2008, p. 
1). 
OJ C 369, 17.12.2011, p. 14. 
Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on 
administrative cooperation through the Internal Market Information System and repealing Commission 
Decision 2008/49/EC ( ‘the IMI Regulation’ ) (OJ L 316, 14.11.2012, p. 1). 
OJ L 345, 27.12.2017, p. 1 
Directive  (EU)  2020/1828  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  25  November  2020  on 
representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers and repealing Directive 
2009/22/EC (OJ L 409, 4.12.2020, p. 1). 

EN 

41 

  EN 

                                                 
HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE: 

Article 1 

Scope 

1. 

2. 

29 

30 

31 

32 

33 

34 

35 

36 

37 

This  Directive  applies  to  explicit  environmental  claims  made  by  traders  about 
products or traders in business-to-consumer commercial practices.  

This  Directive  does  not  apply  to  environmental  labelling  schemes  or  to  explicit 
environmental claims regulated by or substantiated by rules established in: 
(a)  Regulation (EC) No 66/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council29,  
(b)  Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council30, 
(c)  Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 of the European Parliament and of the Council31;  
(d)  Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council32,  
(e)  Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council33 

(f)  Regulation  (EC)  No 765/2008  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 

Council34;  

(g)  Regulation  (EC)  No  1221/2009  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 

Council35; 

(h)  Directive 1999/94/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council36;  

(i)  Regulation  (EU)  No 305/2011  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 

Council37;  

Regulation (EC) No 66/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 on 
the EU Ecolabel (OJ L 27, 30.1.2010, p. 1). 
Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic 
production and labelling of organic products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 (OJ 
L 150, 14.6.2018, p. 1). 
Regulation  (EU)  2017/1369  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  4  July  2017  setting  a 
framework for energy labelling and repealing Directive 2010/30/EU (OJ L 198, 28.7.2017, p. 1). 
Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 establishing 
a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy-related products (recast) (OJ L 285, 
31.10.2009, p. 10). 
Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2011 laying 
down  harmonised  conditions  for  the  marketing  of  construction  products  and  repealing  Council 
Directive 89/106/EEC (OJ L 88, 4.4.2011, p. 5). 
Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 setting out 
the  requirements  for  accreditation  and  market  surveillance  relating  to  the  marketing  of  products  and 
repealing Regulation (EEC) No 339/93 (OJ L 218, 13.8.2008, p. 30). 
Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 
on  the  voluntary  participation  by  organisations  in  a  Community  eco-management  and  audit  scheme 
(EMAS),  repealing  Regulation  (EC)  No  761/2001  and  Commission  Decisions  2001/681/EC  and 
2006/193/EC (OJ L 342, 22.12.2009, p. 1). 
Directive 1999/94/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 1999 relating to 
the  availability  of  consumer  information  on  fuel  economy  and  CO2  emissions  in  respect  of  the 
marketing of new passenger cars (OJ L 12, 18.1.2000, p. 16). 
Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2011 laying 
down  harmonised  conditions  for  the  marketing  of  construction  products  and  repealing  Council 
Directive 89/106/EEC (OJ L 88, 4.4.2011, p. 5). 

EN 

42 

  EN 

                                                 
(j)  Directive 2006/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council38;  
(k)  Directive 94/62/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council39;  
(l)  Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council40  
(m)  Regulation (EU) … /… of the European Parliament and of the Council41;  
(n)  Directive 2012/27/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council42; 
(o)  Directive  2013/34/EU  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council43  and 
other  Union,  national  or  international  rules,  standards  or  guidelines  for 
financial services, financial instruments, and financial products; 

(p)  other  existing  or  future  Union  rules  setting  out  the  conditions  under  which 
certain explicit environmental claims about certain products or traders may be 
or are to be made or Union rules laying down requirements on the assessment 
or  communication  of  environmental  impacts,  environmental  aspects  or 
environmental  performance  of  certain  products  or  traders  or  conditions  for 
environmental labelling schemes. 

Article 2 

Definitions 

For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions shall apply: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

(5) 

38 

39 

40 

41 

42 

43 

‘environmental claim’ means environmental claim as defined in Article 2, point (o), of 
Directive 2005/29/EC; 

‘explicit environmental claim’ means an environmental claim that is in textual form or 
contained in an environmental label; 

‘trader’ means trader as defined in Article 2, point (b), of Directive 2005/29/EC; 

‘product’ means product as defined in Article 2, point (c), of Directive 2005/29/EC; 

‘consumer’  means  consumer  as  defined  in  Article  2,  point  (a),  of  Directive 
2005/29/EC; 

Directive 2006/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 September 2006 on batteries 
and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators and repealing Directive 91/157/EEC (OJ L 266, 
26.9.2006, p. 1). 
Directive 94/62/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 1994 on packaging 
and packaging waste (OJ L 365, 31.12.1994, p. 10). 
Regulation  (EU)  2020/852  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  18  June  2020  on  the 
establishment  of  a  framework  to  facilitate  sustainable  investment,  and  amending  Regulation  (EU) 
2019/2088 (OJ L 198, 22.6.2020, p. 13). 
Regulation  (EU)  …  /…  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  establishing  a  Union 
certification framework for carbon removals (OJ L …). 
Directive  2012/27/EU  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  25 October  2012  on  energy 
efficiency, amending Directives 2009/125/EC and 2010/30/EU and repealing Directives 2004/8/EC and 
2006/32/EC (OJ L 315, 14.11.2012, p. 1). 
Directive  2013/34/EU  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  26  June  2013 on  the  annual 
financial  statements,  consolidated  financial  statements  and  related  reports  of  certain  types  of 
undertakings,  amending  Directive  2006/43/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  and 
repealing Council Directives 78/660/EEC and 83/349/EEC (OJ L 182, 29.6.2013, p. 19). 

EN 

43 

  EN 

                                                 
(6) 

(7) 

(8) 

(9) 

(10) 

(11) 

(12) 

(13) 

(14) 

(15) 

(16) 

(17) 

(18) 

(19) 

‘business-to-consumer 
commercial practices as defined in Article 2, point (d), of Directive 2005/29/EC; 

practices’  means 

commercial 

business-to-consumer 

‘sustainability  label’  means  sustainability  label  as  defined  in  Article  2,  point  (r),  of 
Directive 2005/29/EC; 

‘environmental  label’  means  a  sustainability  label  covering  only  or  predominantly 
environmental aspects of a product, a process or a trader;  

‘product  group’ means  a set  of products  that serve similar purposes  or are similar in 
terms of use or have similar functional properties;  

‘certification scheme’ means a certification scheme as defined in Article 2, point (s), 
of Directive 2005/29/EC; 

‘verification’  means  the  conformity  assessment  process  carried  out  by  a  verifier  to 
verify  whether  the  substantiation  and  communication  of  the  explicit  environmental 
claims  are  in  compliance  with  the  requirements  set  out  in  this  Directive  or  whether 
environmental labelling schemes comply with this Directive; 

‘value  chain’  means  all  activities  and  processes  that  are  part  of  the  life  cycle  of  a 
product or activity of a trader, including remanufacturing; 

‘life cycle’ means the consecutive and interlinked stages of a product’s life, consisting 
of  raw  material  acquisition  or  generation  from  natural  resources,  pre-processing, 
manufacturing, storage, distribution, installation, use, maintenance, repair, upgrading, 
refurbishment as well as re-use, and end-of-life; 

‘primary information’ means information that is directly measured or collected by the 
trader from one or more facilities that are representative for the activities of the trader;  

‘secondary  information’  means  information  that  is  based  on  other  sources  than 
primary information including literature studies, engineering studies and patents. 

‘public’ means one or more natural or legal persons and their associations, traders or 
groups; 

‘environmental  performance’  means  the  performance  of  a  certain  product  or  product 
group    or  trader  or  sector  related  to  the  environmental  aspects  or  environmental 
impacts of that product or product group or the activities of that trader or sector; 

‘environmental  aspect’  means  an  element  of  a  trader’s  or  sector’s  activities  or  of 
products or product groups that interact or can interact with the environment. 

‘environmental  impact’  means  any  change  to  the  environment,  whether  positive  or 
negative, that wholly or partially results from a trader’s or sector’s activities or from a 
product or product group during its life cycle. 

Article 3 

Substantiation of explicit environmental claims 

1. 

Member  States  shall  ensure  that  traders  carry  out  an  assessment  to  substantiate 
explicit environmental claims. This assessment shall:  

(a) 

specify if the claim is related to the whole product, part of a product or certain 
aspects of a product, or to all activities of a trader or a certain part or aspect of 
these activities, as relevant to the claim; 

EN 

44 

  EN 

(b) 

(c) 

(d) 

(e) 

(f) 

(g) 

(h) 

(i) 

(j) 

rely  on  widely  recognised  scientific  evidence,  use  accurate  information  and 
take into account relevant international standards;  

that  environmental 

demonstrate 
impacts,  environmental  aspects  or 
environmental performance that are subject to the claim are significant from a 
life-cycle perspective; 

where  a  claim  is  made  on  environmental  performance,  take  into  account  all 
environmental  aspects  or  environmental  impacts  which  are  significant  to 
assessing the environmental performance; 

demonstrate that the claim is not equivalent to requirements imposed by law 
on products within the product group, or traders within the sector; 

provide  information  whether  the  product  or  trader  which  is  subject  to  the 
claim  performs  significantly  better  regarding  environmental 
impacts, 
environmental aspects or environmental performance which is subject to the 
claim  than  what  is  common  practice  for  products  in  the  relevant  product 
group or traders in the relevant sector;  

identify whether improving environmental impacts, environmental aspects or 
environmental performance subject  to  the claim  leads to  significant harm in 
relation  to  environmental  impacts  on  climate  change,  resource  consumption 
and circularity, sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources, 
pollution, biodiversity, animal welfare and ecosystems; 

separate  any  greenhouse  gas  emissions  offsets  used  from  greenhouse  gas 
emissions  as  additional  environmental  information,  specify  whether  those 
offsets relate to emission reductions or removals, and describe how the offsets 
relied  upon  are  of  high  integrity  and  accounted  for  correctly  to  reflect  the 
claimed impact on climate;  

include  primary  information  available  to  the  trader  for  environmental 
impacts,  environmental  aspects  or  environmental  performance,  which  are 
subject to the claim; 

relevant  secondary 

include 
impacts, 
information 
environmental aspects, or environmental performance which is representative 
of  the  specific  value  chain  of  the  product  or  the  trader  on  which  a  claim  is 
made, in cases where no primary information is available. 

for  environmental 

2. 

3. 

44 

Where it is demonstrated that significant environmental impacts that are not subject 
to the claim exist but there is no widely recognised scientific evidence to perform the 
assessment  referred  to  in  point  (c)  of  paragraph  1,  the  trader  making  the  claim  on 
another aspect  shall take account  of available information and, if necessary, update 
the  assessment  in  accordance  with  paragraph  1  once  widely  recognised  scientific 
evidence is available. 

The  requirements  set  out  in  paragraphs  1  and  2  shall  not  apply  to  traders  that  are 
microenterprises  within 
the  meaning  of  Commission  Recommendation 
2003/361/EC44  unless  they  request  the  verification  with  the  aim  of  receiving  the 
certificate of conformity in accordance with Article 10. 

Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of micro,  
small and medium-sized enterprises (OJ L 124, 20.5.2003, p. 36). 

EN 

45 

  EN 

                                                 
4. 

5. 

When the regular monitoring of the evolution of environmental claims referred to in 
Article  20  reveals  differences  in  the  application  of  the  requirements  laid  down  in 
paragraph  1  for  specific  claims  and  such  differences  create  obstacles  for  the 
functioning  of  the  internal  market,  or  where  the  Commission  identifies  that  the 
absence  of  requirements  for  specific  claims  leads  to  widespread  misleading  of 
consumers, the Commission may adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 18 
to  supplement  the  requirements  for  substantiation  of  explicit  environmental  claims 
laid down  in paragraph 1 by: 

(a) 

(b) 

determining  the  rules  for  assessing  the  environmental  aspects,  environmental 
impacts  and  environmental  performance,  including  by  determining  the 
activities, processes, materials, emissions or use of a product, which contribute 
significantly  or  cannot  contribute  to  the  relevant  environmental  impacts, 
environmental aspects or environmental performance;  

determining  for  which  environmental  aspects  or  environmental  impacts 
primary information shall be provided and determining criteria based on which 
the  accuracy  of  the  primary  information  and  secondary  information  can  be 
assessed; or 

(c) 

establishing  specific  life-cycle-based  rules  on  substantiation  of  explicit 
environmental claims for certain product groups and sectors. 

further 

When  specifying 
for  substantiation  of  explicit 
requirements 
environmental claims in accordance with previous paragraph, the Commission shall 
take  into  account  scientific  or  other  available  technical  information,  including 
relevant international standards, and where relevant consider the following: 

the 

(a) 

(b) 

(d) 

(e) 

the  specificities  of 
methodological approach; 

the  sectors  and  products 

that  require  a  specific 

the  potential  contribution  of  specific  product  groups  or  sectors  to  achieving 
Union climate and environmental objectives; 

any relevant information derived from Union legislation;  

ease  of  access  to  information  and  data  for  the  assessment  and  use  of  this 
information and data by small and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’). 

Article 4 

Substantiation of comparative explicit environmental claims 

1. 

The substantiation of explicit environmental claims that state or imply that a product 
or trader has less environmental impacts or a better environmental performance than 
other  products  or  traders  (‘comparative  environmental  claims’)  shall,  in  addition  to 
the requirements set out in Article 3, comply with the following requirements: 

(a) 

the  information  and  data  used  for  assessing  the  environmental  impacts, 
environmental aspects or environmental performance of the products or traders 
against  which  the  comparison  is  made,  are  equivalent  to  the  information  and 
data  used  for  assessing  the  environmental  impacts,  environmental  aspects  or 
environmental  performance  of  the  product  or  trader  which  is  subject  to  the 
claim; 

EN 

46 

  EN 

(b) 

(c) 

(d) 

the  data  used  for  assessing  the  environmental  impacts,  environmental  aspects 
or  environmental  performance  of  the  products  or  traders  is  generated  or 
sourced  in  an  equivalent  manner  as  the  data  used  for  assessing  the 
environmental  impacts,  environmental  aspects  or  environmental  performance 
of the products or traders against which the comparison is made; 

the coverage of the stages along the value chain is equivalent for the products 
and traders compared and ensures that the most significant stages are taken into 
account for all products and traders; 

the  coverage  of  environmental 
impacts,  environmental  aspects  or 
environmental  performances  is  equivalent  for  the  products  and  traders 
compared  and  ensures  that  the  most  significant  environmental  impacts, 
environmental  aspects  or  environmental  performances  are  taken  into  account 
for all products and traders; 

(e) 

assumptions  used  for  the  comparison  are  set  in  an  equivalent  manner  for  the 
products and traders compared. 

to 

that 

is  subject 

Where  a  comparative  environmental  claim  relates  to  an  improvement  in  terms  of 
environmental  impacts,  environmental  aspects  or  environmental  performance  of  a 
impacts, 
the  claim  compared 
product 
environmental  aspects  or  environmental  performance  of  another  product  from  the 
same trader, from a competing trader that is no longer active on the market or from a 
trader that no longer sells to consumers, the substantiation of the claim shall explain 
how that improvement  affects other relevant environmental impacts, environmental 
aspects  or  environmental performance of the product  subject  to  the claim and shall 
clearly state the baseline year for the comparison. 

to  environmental 

The  requirements  laid  down  in  this  Article  shall  not  apply  to  traders  that  are 
microenterprises  within 
the  meaning  of  Commission  Recommendation 
2003/361/EC45  unless  they  request  the  verification  with  the  aim  of  receiving  the 
certificate of conformity in accordance with Article 10. 

Article 5 

Communication of explicit environmental claims 

Member  States  shall  ensure  that  a  trader  is  required  to  communicate  an  explicit 
environmental claim in accordance with the requirements set out in this Article. 

Explicit environmental claims may only cover environmental impacts, environmental 
aspects  or environmental performance that  are  substantiated  in  accordance with  the 
requirements laid down in Articles 3, 4 and 5 and that are identified as significant for 
the product or trader concerned in accordance with Article 3 paragraph (1) point (c) 
or (d). 

Where  the  explicit  environmental  claim  is  related  to  a  final  product,  and  the  use 
phase  is  among  the  most  relevant  life-cycle  stages  of  that  product,  the  claim  shall 
include information on how the consumer should use the product in order to achieve 

Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of micro,  
small and medium-sized enterprises (OJ L 124, 20.5.2003, p. 36). 

2. 

3. 

1. 

2. 

3. 

45 

EN 

47 

  EN 

                                                 
4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

46 

the  expected  environmental  performance  of  that  product.  That  information  shall  be 
made available together with the claim. 

Where  the  explicit  environmental  claim  is  related  to  future  environmental 
performance  of  a  product  or  trader  it  shall  include  a  time-bound  commitment  for 
improvements inside own operations and value chains. 

Explicit environmental claims on the cumulative environmental impacts of a product 
or  trader  based  on  an  aggregated  indicator  of  environmental  impacts  can  be  made 
only on the basis of rules to calculate such aggregated indicator that are established 
in the Union law. 

Information  on  the  product  or  the  trader  that  is  the  subject  of  the  explicit 
environmental claim and on the substantiation shall be made available together with 
the claim in a physical form or in the form of a weblink, QR code or equivalent.  

That information shall include at least the following: 

(a) 

(b) 

(c) 

(d) 

(e) 

(f) 

(g) 

environmental  aspects,  environmental  impacts  or  environmental  performance 
covered by the claim;  

the relevant Union or the relevant international standards, where appropriate; 

the underlying studies or calculations used to assess, measure and monitor the 
environmental  impacts,  environmental  aspects  or  environmental  performance 
covered  by  the  claim,  without  omitting  the  results  of  such  studies  or 
calculations  and,  explanations  of  their  scope,  assumptions  and  limitations, 
unless  the  information  is  a  trade  secret  in  line  with  Article  2  paragraph  1  of 
Directive (EU) 2016/94346; 

a  brief  explanation  how  the  improvements  that  are  subject  to  the  claim  are 
achieved;  

the  certificate  of  conformity  referred  to  in  Article  10  regarding  the 
substantiation of the claim and the contact information of the verifier that drew 
up the certificate of conformity; 

for  climate-related  explicit  environmental  claims  that  rely  on  greenhouse  gas 
emission offsets, information to which extent they rely on offsets and whether 
these relate to emissions reductions or removals; 

a  summary  of  the  assessment  including  the  elements  listed  in  this  paragraph 
that is clear and understandable to the consumers targeted by the claim and that 
is provided in at least one of the official languages of the Member State where 
the claim is made. 

The requirements set out in paragraphs 2, 3 and 6 shall not apply to traders that are 
microenterprises within the meaning of Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC 
unless  they  request  the  verification  with  the  aim  of  receiving  the  certificate  of 
conformity in accordance with Article 10. 

Where the substantiation of certain environmental impacts, environmental aspects or 
environmental  performance  is  subject  to  the  rules  established  in  delegated  acts 

Directive  (EU)  2016/943  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  8  June  2016  on  the 
protection  of  undisclosed  know-how  and  business  information  (trade  secrets)  against  their  unlawful 
acquisition, use and disclosure (OJ L 157, 15.6.2016, p. 1). 

EN 

48 

  EN 

                                                 
referred  to  in  Article  3,  paragraph  4(a)  and  paragraph  4(c),  the  Commission  may 
adopt  delegated  acts  in  accordance  with  Article  18  to  supplement  the  requirements 
for communication of explicit environmental claims set out in Article 5 by specifying 
further  the  information  that  can  be  or  shall  be  communicated  regarding  such 
environmental impacts,  environmental aspects  or environmental performance, so  as 
to make sure that the consumers are not misled. 

Article 6 

Communication of comparative environmental claims 

Comparative  environmental  claims  shall  not  relate  to  an  improvement  of  the  environmental 
impacts,  environmental  aspects  or  environmental  performance  of  the  product  that  is  the 
subject  of  the  claim  compared  to  the  environmental  impacts,  environmental  aspects  or 
environmental  performance  of  another  product  from  the  same  trader  or  from  a  competing 
trader that is no longer active on the market or from a trader that no longer sells to consumers, 
unless they are based on evidence proving that the improvement is significant and achieved in 
the last five years. 

Article 7 

Environmental labels 

1. 

2. 

1. 

Member States shall ensure that environmental labels fulfil the requirements set out 
in Articles 3 to 6 and are subject to verification in accordance with Article 10.   

Only  environmental 
labelling  schemes 
labels  awarded  under  environmental 
established  under  Union  law  may  present  a  rating  or  score  of  a  product  or  trader 
based on an aggregated indicator of environmental impacts of a product or trader. 

Article 8 

Requirements for environmental labelling schemes 

Environmental labelling scheme means a certification scheme which certifies that a 
product,  a process  or a trader  complies with  the requirements for an environmental 
label. 

2. 

The environmental labelling schemes shall comply with the following requirements: 

(a) 

(b) 

(c) 

information  about  the  ownership  and  the  decision-making  bodies  of  the 
environmental labelling  scheme is  transparent,  accessible free of  charge, easy 
to understand and sufficiently detailed; 

information about the objectives of the environmental labelling scheme and the 
requirements  and  procedures  to  monitor  compliance  of  the  environmental 
labelling scheme are transparent, accessible free of charge, easy to understand 
and sufficiently detailed; 

the  conditions 
labelling  schemes  are 
proportionate to the size and turnover of the companies in order not to exclude 
small and medium enterprises; 

the  environmental 

joining 

for 

EN 

49 

  EN 

3. 

4. 

5. 

(d) 

(e) 

(f) 

the requirements for the environmental labelling scheme have been developed 
by experts that can ensure their scientific robustness and have been submitted 
for  consultation  to  a  heterogeneous  group  of  stakeholders  that  has  reviewed 
them and ensured their relevance from a societal perspective;  

the  environmental  labelling  scheme  has  a  complaint  and  dispute  resolution 
mechanism in place; 

the environmental labelling scheme sets  out  procedures  for dealing with  non-
compliance  and  foresees  the  withdrawal  or  suspension  of  the  environmental 
label  in  case  of  persistent  and  flagrant  non-compliance  with  the  requirements 
of the scheme. 

From [OP: Please insert the date = the date of transposition of this Directive] no new 
national  or regional environmental labelling schemes shall be established by public 
authorities  of  the  Member  States.  However,  national  or  regional  environmental 
labelling  schemes  established  prior  to  that  date  may  continue  to  award  the 
environmental  labels  on  the  Union  market,  provided  they  meet  the  requirements  of 
this Directive. 

From the date referred to in the first subparagraph, environmental labelling schemes 
may only be established under Union law.  

From  [OP:  Please  insert  the  date  =  the  date  of  transposition  of  this  Directive]  any 
new  environmental  labelling  schemes  established  by  public  authorities  in  third 
countries  awarding  environmental  labels  to  be  used  on  the  Union  market,  shall  be 
subject to approval by the Commission  prior to entering the Union market with the 
aim of ensuring that these labels provide added value in terms of their environmental 
ambition including notably their coverage of environmental impacts, environmental 
aspects  or  environmental  performance,  or  of  a  certain  product  group  or  sector,  as 
compared  to  the  existing  Union,  national  or  regional  schemes  referred  to  in 
paragraph  3,  and  meet  the  requirements  of  this  Directive.  Environmental  labelling 
schemes  established  by  public  authorities  in  third  countries  prior  to  that  date  may 
continue  to  award  the  environmental  labels  which  are  to  be  used  on  the  Union 
market, provided they meet the requirements of this Directive. 

Member  States  shall  ensure  that  environmental  labelling  schemes  established  by 
private operators after [OP: Please insert the date = the date of transposition of this 
Directive] are only approved if those schemes provide added value in terms of their 
environmental ambition, including notably their extent of coverage of environmental 
impacts,  environmental  aspects  or  environmental  performance,  or  of  a  certain 
product group or sector and their ability to support the green transition of SMEs, as 
compared  to  the  existing  Union,  national  or  regional  schemes  referred  to  in 
paragraph 3, and meet the requirements of this Directive. 

This procedure for approval of new environmental labelling schemes shall apply to 
schemes established by private operators in the Union and in third countries. 

Member  States  shall  notify  the  Commission  when  new  private  schemes  are 
approved. 

6. 

In order to receive the approvals referred to in paragraphs 4 and 5, the operators of 
new environmental labelling schemes shall provide supporting documents setting out 
the following: 

(a) 

the rationale underlying the development of the scheme  

EN 

50 

  EN 

(b) 

(c) 

(d) 

(e) 

the proposed scope of the scheme,  

the evidence the scheme will provide added value as set out in in paragraph 4 
for  environmental  labelling  schemes  established  by  public  authorities  in  third 
countries, or in paragraph 5 for environmental labelling schemes established by 
private operators; 

a proposal for draft criteria and the methodology used to develop and award the 
environmental label and the expected impacts on the market; 

a detailed description of the ownership and the decision-making bodies of the 
environmental labelling scheme. 

The  documents  referred  to  in  the  first  subparagraph  shall  be  submitted  to  the 
Commission in case of schemes referred to in paragraph 4 or to the Member States’ 
authorities in case of schemes referred to in paragraph 5, together with the certificate 
of  conformity  for  environmental  labelling  schemes  drawn  up  in  accordance  with 
Article 10. 

7. 

8. 

The  Commission  shall  publish  and  keep-up-to  date  a  list  of  officially  recognised 
environmental  labels  that  are  allowed  to  be  used  on  the  Union  market  after  [OP: 
Please  insert  the  date  =  the  date  of  transposition  of  this  Directive]  pursuant  to 
paragraphs 3, 4 and 5. 

In  order  to  ensure  a  uniform  application  across  the  Union,  the  Commission  shall 
adopt implementing acts to:  

(a) 

(b) 

(c) 

provide detailed requirements for approval of environmental labelling schemes 
pursuant to the criteria referred to in paragraphs 4 and 5;  

specify  further the format  and  content of supporting documents referred  to  in 
paragraph 6;  

provide  detailed  rules  on  the  procedure  for  the  approval  referred  to  in 
paragraph 4. 

Those  implementing  acts  shall  be  adopted  in  accordance  with  the  examination 
procedure referred to in Article 19. 

Article 9 

Review of the substantiation of explicit environmental claims 

Member  States  shall  ensure  that  the  information  used  for  substantiation  of  explicit 
environmental claims is  reviewed and updated by  traders when there are circumstances that 
may  affect  the  accuracy  of  a  claim,  and  no  later  than  5  years  from  the  date  when  the 
information  referred  to  in  Article  5(6)  is  provided.  In  the  review,  the  trader  shall  revise  the 
used  underlying  information  to  ensure  that  the  requirements  of  Articles  3  and  4  are  fully 
complied with. 

The updated explicit environmental claim shall be subject to verification in accordance with 
Article 10. 

EN 

51 

  EN 

Article 10 

Verification and certification of the substantiation and communication of environmental 
claims and environmental labelling schemes 

Member  States  shall  set  up  procedures  for  verifying  the  substantiation  and 
communication of explicit environmental claims against the requirements set out in 
Articles 3 to 7. 

Member States shall set up procedures for verifying the compliance of environmental 
labelling schemes with the requirements set out in Article 8. 

The  verification  and  certification  requirements  shall  apply  to  traders  that  are 
microenterprises within the meaning of Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC 
only if they so request. 

The verification shall be undertaken by a verifier fulfilling the requirements set out in 
Article  11,  in  accordance  with  the  procedures  referred  to  in  paragraphs  1  and  2, 
before  the  environmental  claim  is  made  public  or  the  environmental  label  is 
displayed by a trader. 

For the purposes of the verification the verifier shall take into account the nature and 
content of the explicit environmental claim or the environmental label. 

Upon completion of the verification, the verifier shall draw up, where appropriate, a 
certificate  of  conformity  certifying  that  the  explicit  environmental  claim  or  the 
environmental label complies with the requirements set out in this Directive.  

The  certificate  of  conformity  shall  be  recognised  by  the  competent  authorities 
responsible  for  the  application  and  enforcement  of  this  Directive.  Member  States 
shall notify the list of certificates of conformity via the Internal Market Information 
System established by Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012. 

The certificate of conformity shall not prejudge the assessment of the environmental 
claim by national authorities or courts in accordance with Directive 2005/29/EC.  

The Commission shall adopt implementing acts to set out details regarding the form 
of the certificate of conformity referred to in paragraph 5 and the technical means for 
issuing such certificate of conformity. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in 
accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 19. 

Article 11 

Verifier 

The  verifier  shall  be  a  third-party  conformity  assessment  body  accredited  in 
accordance with Regulation (EC) No 765/200847. 

The accreditation shall, in particular, include the evaluation of compliance with the 
requirements in paragraph 3. 

The verifier shall comply with the following requirements: 

Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 setting out 
the  requirements  for  accreditation  and  market  surveillance  relating  to  the  marketing  of  products  and 
repealing Regulation (EEC) No 339/93 (OJ L 218, 13.8.2008, p. 30). 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

1. 

2. 

3. 

47 

EN 

52 

  EN 

                                                 
(a) 

(b) 

(c) 

(d) 

(e) 

(f) 

(g) 

the verifier shall be independent of the product bearing, or the trader associated 
to, the environmental claim; 

the  verifier,  its  top-level  management  and  the  personnel  responsible  for 
carrying  out  the  verification  tasks  shall  not  engage  in  any  activity  that  may 
conflict  with  their  independence  of  judgement  or  integrity  in  relation  to  the 
verification activities;  

the verifier and its personnel shall carry out the verification activities with the 
highest degree of professional integrity and the requisite technical competence 
and  shall  be  free  from  all  pressures  and  inducements,  particularly  financial, 
which  might  influence  their  judgement  or  the  results  of  their  verification 
activities,  

the  verifier  shall  have  the  expertise,  equipment  and  infrastructure  required  to 
perform the verification activities in relation to which it has been accredited; 

the verifier shall have a sufficient number of suitably qualified and experienced 
personnel responsible for carrying out the verification tasks; 

the personnel of a verifier shall observe professional secrecy with regard to all 
information obtained in carrying out the verification tasks; 

where a verifier subcontracts specific tasks connected with verification or has 
recourse to a subsidiary, it shall take full responsibility for the tasks performed 
by  subcontractors  or  subsidiaries  and  shall  assess  and  monitor 
the 
qualifications of the subcontractor or the subsidiary and the work carried out by 
them. 

Article 12 

Small and medium sized enterprises 

Member  States  shall  take  appropriate  measures  to  help  small  and  medium  sized  enterprises 
apply  the  requirements  set  out  in  this  Directive.  Those  measures  shall  at  least  include 
guidelines or similar mechanisms to raise awareness of ways to comply with the requirements 
on explicit environmental claims. In addition, without prejudice to applicable state aid rules, 
such measures may include:  

(a) 

financial support;  

(b) 

access to finance;  

(c) 

specialised management and staff training;  

(d)  organisational and technical assistance. 

Article 13 

Designation of competent authorities and coordination mechanism 

1. 

2. 

Member States shall designate one or more competent authorities as responsible for 
the application and enforcement of this Directive.  

For  the  purpose  of  the  enforcement  of  Articles  5  and  6,  Member  States  may 
designate  the  national  authorities  or  courts  responsible  for  the  enforcement  of 
Directive 2005/29/EC. In that case, Member States may derogate from Articles 14 to 

EN 

53 

  EN 

3. 

4. 

1. 

2. 

3. 

1. 

17  of  this  Directive  and  apply  the  enforcement  rules  adopted  in  accordance  with 
Articles 11 to 13 of Directive 2005/29/EC.  

Where there is more than one competent authority in their territory, Member States 
shall ensure that the respective duties of those authorities are clearly defined and that 
appropriate communication and coordination mechanisms are established.  

Member States shall notify the Commission and other Member States without delay 
of  the  identity  of  the  competent  authorities  in  their  Member  State  and  the  areas  of 
competence of those authorities. 

Article 14 

Powers of the competent authorities 

Member States shall confer on their competent authorities the powers of inspection 
and enforcement necessary to ensure compliance with this Directive. 

The  powers  conferred  on  competent  authorities  under  paragraph  1  shall  include  at 
least the following: 

(a) 

(b) 

(c) 

(d) 

(e) 

(f) 

the power of access to any relevant documents, data or information related to 
an  infringement  of  this  Directive,  in  any  form  or  format  and  irrespective  of 
their storage medium, or the place where they are stored, and the power to take 
or obtain copies thereof; 

the  power  to  require  any  natural  or  legal  person  to  provide  any  relevant 
information, data or documents, in any form or format and irrespective of their 
storage  medium  or  the  place  where  they  are  stored,  for  the  purposes  of 
establishing  whether  an  infringement  of  this  Directive  has  occurred  or  is 
occurring and the details of such infringement; 

the power to start investigations or proceedings on their own initiative to bring 
about the cessation or prohibition of infringements of this Directive; 

the power to require traders to adopt adequate and effective remedies and take 
appropriate action to bring an infringement of this Directive to an end; 

the  power  to  adopt,  where  appropriate,  injunctive  relief  with  regard  to 
infringements of this Directive; 

the power to impose penalties for infringements of this Directive in accordance 
with Article 17.  

Competent  authorities  may  use  any  information,  document,  finding,  statement  or 
intelligence  as  evidence  for  the  purpose  of  their  investigations,  irrespective  of  the 
format in which or medium on which they are stored. 

Article 15 

Compliance monitoring measures 

Competent  authorities  of  the  Member  States  designated  in  accordance  with  Article 
13 shall undertake regular checks of the explicit environmental claims made and the 
environmental labelling schemes applied, on the Union market. The reports detailing 
the result of those checks shall be made available to the public online. 

EN 

54 

  EN 

2. 

3. 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

Where  the  competent  authorities  of  a  Member  State  detect  an  infringement  of  an 
obligation  set  out  in  this  Directive,  they  shall  carry  out  an  evaluation  covering  all 
relevant requirements laid down in this Directive. 

that 

the  substantiation  and  communication  of 

Where, further to the evaluation referred to in the first subparagraph, the competent 
the  explicit 
authorities  find 
environmental claim or the environmental labelling scheme does not comply with the 
requirements  laid  down  in  this  Directive,  they  shall  notify  the  trader  making  the 
claim  about  the  non-compliance  and  require  that  trader  to  take  all  appropriate 
corrective  action  within  30  days  to  bring  the  explicit  environmental  claim  or  the 
environmental labelling  scheme into compliance  with  this Directive or to cease the 
use of and references to the non-compliant explicit environmental claim. Such action 
shall  be  as  effective  and  rapid  as  possible,  while  complying  with  the  principle  of 
proportionality and the right to be heard. 

Article 16 

Complaint-handling and access to justice 

Natural  or  legal  persons  or  organisations  regarded  under  Union  or  national  law  as 
having  a  legitimate  interest  shall  be  entitled  to  submit  substantiated  complaints  to 
competent authorities when they deem, on the basis of objective circumstances, that 
a trader is failing to comply with the provisions of this Directive. 

the  purposes  of 

the  first  subparagraph,  non-governmental  entities  or 
For 
organisations  promoting  human  health,  environmental  or  consumer  protection  and 
meeting  any  requirements  under  national  law  shall  be  deemed  to  have  sufficient 
interest. 

Competent  authorities  shall  assess  the  substantiated  complaint  referred  to  in 
paragraph  1  and,  where  necessary,  take  the  necessary  steps,  including  inspections 
and hearings of the person or organisation, with a view to verify those complaints. If 
confirmed, the competent  authorities shall take the necessary  actions in  accordance 
with Article 15.  

Competent authorities shall, as soon as possible and in any case in accordance with 
the relevant provisions of national law, inform the person or organisation referred to 
in paragraph 1 that submitted the complaint of its decision to accede to or refuse the 
request for action put forward in the complaint and shall provide the reasons for it. 

Member States shall ensure that a person or organisation referred to in paragraph 1 
submitting  a  substantiated  complaint  shall  have  access  to  a  court  or  other 
independent  and  impartial  public  body  competent  to  review  the  procedural  and 
substantive legality of the decisions, acts or failure to act of the competent authority 
under  this  Directive,  without  prejudice  to  any  provisions  of  national  law  which 
require  that  administrative  review  procedures  be  exhausted  prior  to  recourse  to 
judicial proceedings. Those judicial review procedures shall be fair, equitable, timely 
and  free  of  charge  or  not  prohibitively  expensive,  and  shall  provide  adequate  and 
effective remedies, including injunctive relief where necessary.  

Member States shall ensure that practical information is made available to the public 
on  access  to  the  administrative  and  judicial  review  procedures  referred  to  in  this 
Article. 

EN 

55 

  EN 

Article 17 

Penalties 

1. 

2. 

to 

Without  prejudice 
the  obligations  of  Member  States  under  Directive 
2008/99/EC4048, Member States shall lay down the rules on penalties applicable to 
infringements of national provisions adopted pursuant to this Directive and shall take 
all measures necessary to ensure that they are implemented. The penalties provided 
for shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. 

When  determining  the  type  and  level  of  penalties  to  be  imposed  in  case  of 
infringements, the competent authorities of the Member States shall give due regard 
to the following: 

(a) 

(b) 

(c) 

the nature, gravity, extent and duration of the infringement; 

the intentional or negligent character of the infringement and any action taken 
by the trader to mitigate or remedy the damage suffered by consumers, where 
applicable; 

the  financial  strength  of  the  natural  or  legal  person  held  responsible,  as 
indicated for example by the total turnover of the legal person held responsible 
or the annual income of the natural person held responsible; 

(d) 

the economic benefits derived from the infringement by those responsible;  

(e) 

(f) 

any previous infringements by the natural or legal person held responsible;  

any  other  aggravating  or  mitigating  factor  applicable  to  the  circumstances  of 
the case; 

(g)  penalties  imposed  on  the  trader  for  the  same  infringement  in  other  Member 
States in cross-border cases where information about such penalties is available 
through  the  mechanism  established  by  Regulation  (EU)  2017/2394,  where 
applicable. 

3. 

Member  States  shall  provide  that  penalties  and  measures  for  infringements  of  this 
Directive shall include:  

(a) 

(b) 

(c) 

fines  which  effectively  deprive  those  responsible  of  the  economic  benefits 
derived  from  their  infringements,  and  increasing  the  level  of  such  fines  for 
repeated infringements;  

confiscation  of  revenues  gained  by  the  trader  from  a  transaction  with  the 
relevant products concerned;  

temporary  exclusion  for  a  maximum  period  of  12  months  from  public 
procurement processes and from access to public funding, including tendering 
procedures, grants and concessions.  

For  the  purposes  of  point  (a),  Member  States  shall  ensure  that  when  penalties  are  to  be 
imposed  in  accordance  with  Article  21  of  Regulation  (EU)  2017/239449,  the  maximum 
amount of such fines being at least at 4 % of the trader’s annual turnover in the Member State 
or Member States concerned.  

48 

49 

Directive  2008/99/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  19  November  2008  on  the 
protection of the environment through criminal law (OJ L 328, 6.12.2008, p. 28). 
OJ L 345, 27.12.2017, p. 1. 

EN 

56 

  EN 

                                                 
Article 18 

Exercise of the delegation 

The  power  to  adopt  delegated  acts  is  conferred  on  the  Commission  subject  to  the 
conditions laid down in this Article. 

The power to adopt delegated acts as referred to in Article 3(4) and Article 5(8) shall 
be conferred on the Commission for a period of five years from [OP please insert the 
date = the date of transposition of this Directive]. The Commission shall draw up a 
report in respect of the delegation of power not later than nine months before the end 
of the five-year period. The delegation of power shall be tacitly extended for periods 
of an identical duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such 
extension not later than three months before the end of each period. 

The delegation of power referred to in Article 3(4) and Article 5(8) may be revoked 
at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council. A decision to revoke shall 
put  an  end  to  the  delegation  of  the  power  specified  in  that  decision.  It  shall  take 
effect the day following the publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the 
European Union or at a later date specified therein. It shall not affect the validity of 
any delegated acts already in force. 

Before adopting a delegated act, the Commission shall consult experts designated by 
each  Member  State 
the 
in  accordance  with 
Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making. 

the  principles 

laid  down 

in 

As soon as it adopts a delegated act, the Commission shall notify it simultaneously to 
the  European  Parliament  and  to  the  Council.  A  delegated  act  adopted  pursuant  to 
Article  3(4)  and  Article  5(8)    shall  enter  into  force  only  if  no  objection  has  been 
expressed  either  by  the  European  Parliament  or  by  the  Council  within  a  period  of 
[two months] of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council 
or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have 
both  informed  the  Commission  that  they  will  not  object.  That  period  shall  be 
extended  by  [two  months]  at  the  initiative  of  the  European  Parliament  or  of  the 
Council. 

Article 19 

Committee procedure  

The  Commission  shall  be  assisted  by  a  committee.  That  committee  shall  be  a 
committee within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011.  

Where  reference  is  made  to  this  paragraph,  Article  5(4),  third  subparagraph,  of 
Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply. 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

1. 

2. 

Article 20 

Monitoring 

1. 

Member States shall regularly monitor the application of this Directive based on: 

EN 

57 

  EN 

2. 

3. 

4. 

1. 

2. 

(a) 

(b) 

an overview of the types of explicit environmental claims and of environmental 
labelling  schemes  which  have  been  subject  to  substantiated  complaints  in 
accordance with Article 16; 

an  overview  of  explicit  environmental  claims  and  of  environmental  labelling 
schemes with regard to which competent authorities have required the trader to 
take corrective action, in accordance with Article 15, or have imposed penalties 
in accordance with Article 17. 

The  information  referred  to  in  paragraph  1  shall  specify  the  explicit  environmental 
claim or environmental labelling scheme, the nature of the alleged infringement, the 
nature and duration of the corrective action and, if applicable, the penalty imposed. 

Member  States  shall  provide  the  information  referred  to  in  paragraph  1  to  the 
Commission on an annual basis.  

Based  on  the  information  collected  pursuant  to  paragraph  3  and  the  information  
made  available  by  the  Member  States  pursuant  to  Article  15(1),  and,  if  necessary, 
additional  consultations  with  competent  authorities,  the  European  Environmental 
Agency  shall  publish,  every  two  years,  a  report  containing  an  assessment  of  the 
evolution  of  explicit  environmental  claims  and  environmental  labelling  schemes  in 
each  Member  State  and  for  the  Union  as  a  whole.  The  report  shall  enable  a 
differentiation according to the size of the trader making the claim and according to 
the quality of the substantiation. 

Article 21 

Evaluation and review 

By  [OP  please  insert  the  date  =  5  years  after  the  date  of  transposition  of  this 
Directive], the Commission shall carry out an evaluation of this Directive in light of 
the  objectives  that  it  pursues  and  present  a  report  on  the  main  findings  to  the 
European Parliament and the Council.  

The report referred to in paragraph 1 shall assess whether this Directive has achieved 
its objective, in particular with regard to: 

(a) 

(b) 

(c) 

(d) 

ensuring  that  explicit  environmental  claims  made  about  the  environmental 
performance  of  a  product  or  trader  are  based  on  reliable,  comparable  and 
verifiable information;  

ensuring that environment labelling schemes are based on certification schemes 
and meet the relevant requirements set out in Article 8; 

ensuring  that  new  private  environmental  labelling  schemes  concerning 
products  or  traders  already  covered  by  existing  schemes  are  approved  by  the 
Member  States  only  if  they  provide  added  value  as  compared  to  the  existing 
schemes; 

setting  out  the  rules  for  communicating  explicit  environmental  claims  on  the 
Union  market,  and  avoiding  duplication  of  costs  when  communicating  such 
claims;  

(e) 

strengthening the functioning of the internal market.  

EN 

58 

  EN 

3. 

Where  the  Commission  finds  it  appropriate,  the  report  referred  to  in  paragraph  1 
shall  be  accompanied  by  a  legislative  proposal  for  amendment  of  the  relevant 
provisions of this Directive, including considering further provisions on: 

(a) 

(b) 

(c) 

unlocking  opportunities  for  the  circular,  bio  and  green  economy  by  assessing 
the appropriateness and feasibility of mandating the use of common, and where 
relevant life-cycle based, method for substantiation of environmental claims; 

towards 

transition 

facilitating 
toxic  free  environment  by  considering 
introducing  a  prohibition  of  environmental  claims  for  products  containing 
hazardous  substances  except  where  their  use  is  considered  essential  for  the 
society in line with the criteria to be developed by the Commission; 

further harmonisation as regards requirements on the substantiation of specific 
environmental claims on environmental aspects or impacts such as durability, 
reusability, reparability, recyclability, recycled content, use of natural content, 
including  fibers,  environmental  performance  or  sustainability,  bio-based 
elements, biodegradability, biodiversity, waste prevention and reduction. 

Article 22 

In the Annex to Regulation (EU) 1024/2012, the following point is added: 

Amendment to Regulation (EU) 1024/2012 

‘X.  [OP:  Please  insert  the  next  consecutive  number]  Directive  (EU)  …  of  the  European 
Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  …  on  substantiation  and  communication  of  explicit 
environmental claims (OJ L …, date, page: Articles 13(3) and 15)’. 

Article 23 

In the Annex to Regulation (EU) 2017/2394, the following point is added: 

Amendments to Regulation (EU) 2017/2394  

’X.  [OP:  Please  insert  the  next  consecutive  number]  Directive  (EU)  …  of  the  European 
Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  …  on  substantiation  and  communication  of  explicit 
environmental claims (OJ L …, date, page).’ 

Article 24 

In Annex I to Directive (EU) 2020/1828, the following point is added: 

Amendment to Directive (EU) 2020/1828 

‘(X)  [OP:  Please  insert  the  next  consecutive  number]  Directive  (EU)  …  of  the  European 
Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  …  on  substantiation  and  communication  of  explicit 
environmental claims (OJ L …, date, page)’. 

EN 

59 

  EN 

Article 25 

Transposition 

1. 

Member  States  shall  adopt  and  publish  by  [OP  please  insert  the  date  =  18  months 
after  the  date  of  entry  into  force  of  this  Directive]  the  laws,  regulations  and 
administrative  provisions  necessary  to  comply  with  this  Directive.  They  shall 
immediately communicate the text of those measures to the Commission. 

They shall apply those measures from [OP please insert the date =  24 months after 
the date of entry into force of this Directive]. 

When  Member  States  adopt  those  measures,  they  shall  contain  a  reference  to  this 
Directive  or  be  accompanied  by  such  a  reference  on  the  occasion  of  their  official 
publication. Member States shall determine how such reference is to be made. 

2. 

Member States shall communicate to the Commission the text of the main measures 
of national law which they adopt in the field covered by this Directive. 

Article 26 

Entry into force 

This Directive shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in 
the Official Journal of the European Union.  

Article 27 

Addressees 

This Directive is addressed to the Member States. 

Done at Brussels, 

For the European Parliament 
The President 

For the Council 
The President 

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  EN 

 
LEGISLATIVE FINANCIAL STATEMENT 

1. 

FRAMEWORK OF THE PROPOSAL/INITIATIVE  

1.1. 

Title of the proposal/initiative 

Green  Claims:  proposal  for  a  Directive  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 
Council on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims 

1.2. 

Policy area(s) concerned  

09 - Environment & Climate Action116 

1.3. 

The proposal/initiative relates to:  

 a new action  

 a new action following a pilot project/preparatory action117  

 the extension of an existing action  

 a merger or redirection of one or more actions towards another/a new action  

1.4. 

Objective(s) 

1.4.1.  General objective(s) 

The  objective  of  this  initiative  is  to    increase  the  level  of  environmental  protection 
and  contribute  to  accelerating  the  green  transition  towards  a  circular,  clean  and 
climate  neutral  economy  in  the  EU,  protect  consumers  and  companies  from 
greenwashing and enable consumers to contribute to accelerating the green transition 
by  making  informed  purchasing  decisions  based  on  credible  environmental  claims 
and labels, improve the legal certainty as regards environmental claims and the level 
playing  fields  on  the  internal  market,  boost  the  competitiveness  of  economic 
operators  that  make  efforts  to  increase  the  environmental  sustainability  of  their 
products  and  activities,  and  create  cost  saving  opportunities  for  such  operators  that 
borders. 
are 
It complements the proposed changes to the proposed Unfair Commercial Practices.  

trading 

across 

1.4.2. 

Specific objective(s) 

Establish EU rules on voluntary green claims, applicable to traders operating in the 
European Union (with the exception of microenterprises for some provisions) on the 
substantiation, 
environmental 
claims/environmental labelling schemes. 

communication 

verification 

and 

of 

1.4.3.  Expected result(s) and impact 

By reaching the specific objectives, more market operators would be able to integrate 
reliable  environmental  information  into  their  decision-making  (e.g.  purchasing 
decisions,  choice  of  suppliers  or  co-operation  with  suppliers  and  business  partners, 
product design, procurement choices).  

116 

117 

For the Green Claims, the legal basis of the initiative is the Single Market but budgetary resources come 
from 09 – Environment and Climate Action. 
As referred to in Article 58(2)(a) or (b) of the Financial Regulation. 

EN 

61 

  EN 

                                                 
Consumers would be able to trust the environmental claims on the products they buy, 
enabling them to integrate environmental considerations more systematically in their 
purchasing decisions.  

This would trigger more demand for greener products and solutions, driving growth 
in  green  markets.  It  would  unlock  opportunities  in  the  supply  chain  for  more 
efficiency and better environmental performance. This would then contribute to the 
general  objective  of  unlocking  opportunities  for  the  circular  and  green  economy. 
Establishing  an  EU  approach  to  environmental  claims  would  address  the  general 
objective  of  strengthening  the  functioning  of  the  internal  market,  specifically  of 
green markets.  

A  common  EU  approach  answering  the  objective  of  reliability,  comparability  and 
verifiability  would  make  it  easier  for  enforcers  to  check  claims,  further  enhancing 
their  effect.  This  would  further  strengthen  drivers  for  better  environmental 
performance  of  products  and  traders,  contributing  to  European  Green  Deal 
objectives. 

1.4.4. 

Indicators of performance 

Specify the indicators for monitoring progress and achievements. 

1.  Environmental  claims  on  products  and  companies  are  reliable,  comparable 
and  verifiable: 
reliable  environmental  claims,  and 
correspondingly  decreasing  share  of  misleading  environmental  claims  monitored 
through:  

increasing  share  of 

o Number of environmental claims that respect (or not) the requirements of the green 
claims initiative;  

o Effective implementation of the green claims initiative;  

o Share of national authorities that  consider that the Directive has made it easier to 
address greenwashing.  

2. Users of information trust environmental information: increasing trust of users 
of information (consumers, businesses, investors, public administrations and NGOs) 
in environmental claims monitored through:  

o Level of consumer trust in environmental claims;  

o Level of consumer trust in sustainability labels;  

o  Level  of  trust  of  other  users  of  information  (businesses,  investors,  public 
administrations, NGOs) in environmental claims in scope.  

3. Environmental performance of products and organisations improves: positive 
evolution  of benchmark  values in  Product  Environmental  Footprint Category Rules 
(PEF)  and  Organization 
(PEFCRs)  and  Product  Environmental  Footprint 
Environmental  Footprint  (OEF)  profile  results  showing  a  trend  that  products  and 
organisations are becoming greener; decreasing consumption footprint of EU (as per 
the  consumption  footprint 
indicator  developed  by  JRC),  covering  all  16 
environmental  impacts  of  the  Environmental  Footprint  methods.  This  will  be 
monitored by the following indicators:  

o Evolution of benchmark values in PEFCRs;  

o Evolution of EF profile results on PEF and OEF over time;  

EN 

62 

  EN 

o Evolution of consumption footprint in the EU.  

4.  Obstacles  on  green  markets  are  reduced:  obstacles  related  to  complying  with 
multiple methods and to provide environmental information are reduced. This will be 
monitored by the following indicators:  

o Perception of businesses on the internal market of green products. 

1.5. 

Grounds for the proposal/initiative  

1.5.1.  Requirement(s) to be met in the short or long term including a detailed timeline for 

roll-out of the implementation of the initiative 

Short-term requirements 

The Member States will have two years to transpose the Directive. This proposal is 
closely  linked  with  the  review  of  Unfair  Commercial  Practices  Directive,  proposed 
by the Commission in March 2022, and it is expected that the two Directives may be 
transposed jointly. 

In addition to the transposition of the rules on substantiation  and communication of 
environmental  claims,  the  Member  States  will  have  to  set  up  a  procedure  for 
verifying  the  substantiation  of  environmental  claims  on  products/traders  put  on  the 
,  and  ecolabelling  schemes,  designate  competent  authorities  and  a 
market, 
coordination mechanism.  

The proposal foresees that voluntary environmental claims have to be substantiated 
based on an assessment that meets specific requirements set out in Article 3. In cases 
where  the  Commission  adopts  delegated  acts  establishing  life-cycle  based  rules  for 
specific product groups or sectors, the economic operators will be able to substantiate 
specific claims on environmental impacts on their basis.  

In  support  of  the  implementation  of  this  Directive,  and  shortly  after  its  entry  into 
force,  the  Commission  will  adopt  an  implementing  act  to  provide  details  regarding 
the  form  of  certificate  to  be  issued  by  the  verifier  of  environmental  claims  as  per 
Article 12. 

On-going requirements 

The  competent  authorities  will  be  obliged  to  undertake  regular  checks  of  the 
environmental claims used on the EU market. 

The  Member  States  will  be  obliged  to  regularly  monitor  the  application  of  the 
Directive based on an overview of environmental claims which have been notified to 
enforcement authorities; an overview of environmental claims with regard to whom 
enforcement authorities have required the organisation responsible to take corrective 
action,  and,  if  applicable,  have  taken  enforcement  measures.  Member  States  will 
supply this information to the Commission on an annual basis. 

Five  years after the date of entry into force of this Directive, the Commission shall 
carry out an evaluation of this Directive in light of the objectives that it pursues and 
present a report on the main findings and where appropriate a legislative proposal for 
amendment of the relevant provisions of this Directive. 

The  Commission  will  be  empowered  to  adopt  delegated  acts  according  to  Article 
3(4)  on  further  specifying  the  requirements  for  the  substantiation  of  explicit 
environmental  claims.  This  will  be  an  ongoing  process  to  develop  further 
substantiation methods. 

EN 

63 

  EN 

The Commission will also be empowered to adopt delegated and implementing acts 
to  supplement  the  requirements  for  environmental  labelling  schemes  in  line  with 
Article 8(8) and (9). 

1.5.2.  Added  value  of  Union  involvement  (it  may  result  from  different  factors,  e.g. 
coordination gains, legal certainty, greater effectiveness or complementarities). For 
the purposes of this point 'added value of Union involvement' is the value resulting 
from  Union  intervention,  which  is  additional  to  the  value  that  would  have  been 
otherwise created by Member States alone. 

It  is  essential  to  ensure  a  level  playing  field  for  economic  operators  in  terms  of 
requirements  to  be  met  when  making  an  environmental  claim,  including  the 
requirements on the information and data to be used, by putting in place a common 
set of rules within the EU internal market. 

Based  on  the  status  quo,  and  if  Member  States  were  to  act  individually,  there  is  a 
high risk to  end up with many competing different  systems,  based on different  and 
uncomparable  methods  and  approaches,  leading  to  a  fragmented  internal  market, 
especially for cross-border products traded on the internal market, increasing the risk 
of  having  uneven  awareness  and  information  levels  on  the  environmental 
performance  of  products  and  organisations  across  EU,  and  additional  costs  for 
companies  trading cross-border (especially if they  have to  use different  methods or 
comply with different labelling schemes). 

In the absence of EU-level action, the market operators will continue to be faced with 
misleading  information  on  environmental  aspects,  while  obstacles  on  the  internal 
market  would  impede  businesses  to  operate  in  equivalent  conditions.  In  addition, 
certain aspects, like the development of methods to underpin specific claims and the 
establishment  of  related  databases  (if  needed)  cannot  be  achieved  at  national  level, 
given their scope in terms of coverage of products, sectors or geographical regions. 

There is a clear added value in setting common requirements at EU level, because a 
harmonised and well-functioning internal EU market would set a level playing field 
for businesses operating in the EU. 

It is expected that following the action at EU level Member States will be prevented 
from introducing unilaterally specific measures and the Directive will to reduce the 
risk  of  legal  fragmentation  of  the  single  market  and  will  bring  cost  savings  for 
governments and the private sector. 

1.5.3.  Lessons learned from similar experiences in the past 

to 

initiative  complements 

the  proposed  changes 

The 
the  proposed  Unfair 
Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) made by the European Commission to the 
European  Parliament  and  to  the  Council.  It  builds  on  the  lessons  learned  on  the 
implementation of the UCPD and the need for specific rules on the substantiation of 
explicit  green  claims,  on  communication  and  verification.  It  also  draws  the  lessons 
on the proliferation of ecolabelling schemes. Other lessons learned are related to the 
development of the EU Ecolabel, EMAS, and the development of the environmental 
footprint methods. 

EN 

64 

  EN 

1.5.4.  Compatibility  with  the  Multiannual  Financial  Framework  and  possible  synergies 

with other appropriate instruments 

The initiatives fall under the umbrella of the European Green Deal, which guides the 
EU's recovery strategy. The Green Deal recognises the advantages of investing in our 
competitive sustainability by building a fairer, greener and more digital Europe.  

The initiative is financed under Heading 3 (Natural Resources and the Environment), 
Title 9 (Environment and Climate Action) of the Multiannual Financial Framework. 
As  detailed  below,  the  implementation  will  require  additional  human  resources, 
spending under the LIFE programme and some supporting expenditure in the EEA. 
The  corresponding  increase  of  the  EEA  subsidy  will  be  offset  from  the  EU 
programme for the environment and climate action (LIFE). 

Other  policy  areas  could  provide  support  to  businesses  for  implementing  the 
requirements  for  substantiating  and  communicating  environmental  claims,  e.g.  as 
laid down in delegated acts according to Art 3, in particular EU funding provided on 
innovation  and  investments  to  businesses,  in  particular  to  SMEs.  The  European 
Regional  Development  Fund,  through  smart  specialisation,  LIFE  and  Horizon 
Europe  complements  private  innovation  funding  and  support  the  whole  innovation 
cycle with the aim to bring solutions to the market. The Digital Europe Programme 
launched  in  2022  the  Concerted  Action  CIRPASS  with  the  objective  to  open  up 
possibilities for innovative workflows, especially to further the circularity of the flow 
of  tangible  goods,  but  also  for  consumer  information  by  defining  a  cross-sectoral 
product data model for the digital product passport with demonstrated usefulness for 
the Circular Economy.  

The  Innovation  Fund  is  one  of  the  world’s  largest  funding  programmes  for  the 
demonstration  of  innovative  low-carbon  technologies  and  solutions.  It  will  provide 
around  EUR  10  billion  of  support  over  2020-2030,  aiming  to  bring  to  the  market 
industrial  solutions  to  decarbonise  Europe  and  support  its  transition  to  climate 
neutrality. 

1.5.5.  Assessment  of  the  different  available  financing  options,  including  scope  for 

redeployment 

Several options were assessed, including coverage by ENV services only with a mix 
of procuring services for datasets, to  exploring cooperation with  other services  and 
agencies. The best  option retained combines procuring services for datasets  by DG 
ENV and a contribution to the EEA to seek expertise from their staff.  

EN 

65 

  EN 

1.6. 

Duration and financial impact of the proposal/initiative 

 limited duration  

–    in effect from [DD/MM]YYYY to [DD/MM]YYYY  

–    Financial  impact  from  YYYY  to  YYYY  for  commitment  appropriations  and 

from YYYY to YYYY for payment appropriations.  

 unlimited duration 

–  Implementation with a start-up period from 2024 to 2027, 

–  followed by full-scale operation. 

1.7.  Management mode(s) planned118  

 Direct management by the Commission 

–   by its departments, including by its staff in the Union delegations;  

–    by the executive agencies  

 Shared management with the Member States  

 Indirect management by entrusting budget implementation tasks to: 

–   third countries or the bodies they have designated; 

–   international organisations and their agencies (to be specified); 

–   the EIB and the European Investment Fund; 

–   bodies referred to in Articles 70 and 71 of the Financial Regulation; 

–   public law bodies; 

–   bodies governed by private law with a public service mission to the extent that 

they are provided with adequate financial guarantees; 

–   bodies governed by the private law of a Member State that are entrusted with 
the  implementation  of  a  public-private  partnership  and  that  are  provided  with 
adequate financial guarantees; 

–    persons  entrusted  with  the  implementation  of  specific  actions  in  the  CFSP 

pursuant to Title V of the TEU, and identified in the relevant basic act. 

118 

Details of budget implementation methods and references to the Financial Regulation may be found on 
the BUDGpedia site: https://myintracomm.ec.europa.eu/corp/budget/financial-rules/budget-
implementation/Pages/implementation-methods.aspx 

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2. 

MANAGEMENT MEASURES  

2.1.  Monitoring and reporting rules  

Specify frequency and conditions. 

The  initiatives  involve  procurement,  administrative  arrangement  with  the  JRC, 
increase of the contribution to the EEA and impact on the COM HR. Standard rules 
for this type of expenditure apply. 

2.2.  Management and control system(s)  

2.2.1. 

Justification of the management mode(s), the funding implementation mechanism(s), 
the payment modalities and the control strategy proposed 

N/A – cf. above. 

2.2.2. 

Information concerning the risks identified and the internal control system(s) set up 
to mitigate them 

N/A – cf. above. 

2.2.3.  Estimation and justification of the cost-effectiveness of the controls (ratio of "control 
costs ÷ value of the related funds managed"), and assessment of the expected levels 
of risk of error (at payment & at closure)  

N/A – cf. above. 

2.3.  Measures to prevent fraud and irregularities  

Specify existing or envisaged prevention and protection measures, e.g. from the Anti-Fraud Strategy. 

N/A – cf. above. 

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3. 

3.1. 

ESTIMATED FINANCIAL IMPACT OF THE PROPOSAL/INITIATIVE  

Heading(s)  of  the  multiannual  financial  framework  and  expenditure  budget 
line(s) affected  

  Existing budget lines  

In order of multiannual financial framework headings and budget lines. 

Budget line 

Type of  
expenditure 

Contribution  

Heading of 
multiannual 
financial 
framework 

Number  

Diff./Non-
diff.119 

from 
EFTA 
countries
120 

from 
candidate 
countries 
and 
potential 
candidates
121 

fromother 
third 
countries 

other assigned 
revenue 

3 

3 

7 

7 

7 

09  02  02  Circular  Economy  and 
quality of life 

Diff. 

YES 

NO 

YES 

NO 

09  10  02  European  Environment 
Agency 

20  01  02  01  –  Remuneration  and 
allowances 

20  02  01  03  –  National  civil  servants 
temporarily assigned to the institution  

20 02 06 02 – Meetings, expert groups 

Diff. 

Non-
diff. 

Non-
diff. 

Non-
diff. 

  New budget lines requested  

N/A 

YES 

YES 

NO 

NO 

NO 

NO 

NO 

NO 

NO 

NO 

NO 

NO 

NO 

NO 

NO 

NO 

119 
120 
121 

Diff. = Differentiated appropriations / Non-diff. = Non-differentiated appropriations. 
EFTA: European Free Trade Association.  
Candidate countries and, where applicable, potential candidates from the Western Balkans. 

EN 

68 

  EN 

 
 
                                                 
3.2. 

Estimated financial impact of the proposal on appropriations  

3.2.1. 

Summary of estimated impact on operational appropriations  

–    The proposal/initiative does not require the use of operational appropriations  

–   The proposal/initiative requires the use of operational appropriations, as explained below: 

Heading of multiannual financial  
framework  

3 

Natural resources and environment 

EUR million (to three decimal places) 

DG: ENV 

2024 

2025 

2026 

2027 
and 
beyond 

TOTAL 

 Operational appropriations  

09 02 02 Circular Economy and quality of 
life 

Commitments 

Payments 

(1) 

(2) 

2,540 

6,964 

5,264 

5,214 

2,540 

6,964 

5,264 

5,214 

TOTAL appropriations 
for DG ENV 

Commitments 

=(1) 

2,540 

6,964 

5,264 

5,214 

Payments 

=(2) 

2,540 

6,964 

5,264 

5,214 

19,982 

19,982 

19,982 

19,982 

The amount reported above will be needed to finance the following actions: 

 

The  acquisition  of  the  secondary  Environmental  Footprint  (EF)  datasets  providing  key  average  data  on  resource  consumption  and 
emissions for key processes that can be used by many companies to assess their value chains , the acquisition and development of data 
to fill possible data gaps, the development costs of an IT platform for the EF database as well as the maintenance of the database for the 
period 2026-2027 (EUR  10,095 million). The access  to  EF datasets  will  support companies, especially SMEs, in  complying with  the 
Green  Claims  Directive  in  a  more  cost  efficient  and  less  burdensome  manner.  The  easy  access  to  high  quality  data  related  to  the 
environmental  perfromance  of  products  will  be  a  key  enabler  for  all  companies,  but  especially  for  SMEs,  to  substantiate  their 
environmental claims in a robust manner unrelated to the question if delegated acts based on Art 3 of this proposal on environmental 
claims  are  in  place  or  not.  The  access  to  EF  datasets  will  also  support  the  implementation  of  other  EU  policies  on  environmental 

EN 

69 

EN 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
sustainability and helping consumers to make the right choices, such as the proposal for Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation 
(ESPR)  122. The ESPR introduces the possibility to  set  mandatory information requirements, which may also be linked with  labelling 
requirements,  and  it  will  result  in  improved  information  flows  through  Digital  Product  Passports.  The  EF  datasets  will  support  the 
calculation and setting of information and performance requirements e.g. related to carbon and environmental footprint, as foreseen by 
the ESPR proposal, based on a harmonised set of high-quality secondary data.  

The procurement of studies and surveys regarding the use of methods used for substantiation by stakeholders and the evaluation of the 
Directive on Green Claims (EUR 0,150 million) 

JRC will play a key role in supporting the Commission with some of the technical work required. The Administrative Arrangement is 
expected to represent a cost around EUR 1,700 millions 

Administrative and technical support for the preparation of delegated acts according to Art 3(4) on further specifying the requirements 
for the substantiation of explicit environmental claims setting life-cycle based rules for specific product groups or sectors, will be also an 
important expenditure. This budget line accounts for the preparation of 6 such delegated acts (EUR 6,827 million) 

Flanking measures to  help  SMEs to  adapt  to  this directive, including the  development  of calculation  tools based on the requirements 
described in delegated acts according to Art 3(4) (EUR 1,210 million). 

 

 

 

 

Agency: EEA 

2025 

2026 

2027 

TOTAL 

Title 1: Staff expenditure 

Title 2: Infrastructure 

Title 3: Operational expenditure 

Commitments 

Payments 

Commitments 

Payments 

Commitments 

Payments 

(1a) 

(2a) 

(1b) 

(2b) 

(1c) 

(2c) 

TOTAL appropriations 

Commitments 

=1a+1b +1c 

0,180 

0,180 

0,367 

0,367 

0,375 

0,375 

0,095 

0,095 

0,065 

0,065 

0,065 

0,065 

0,275 

0,432 

0,440 

0,922 

0,922 

0,225 

0,225 

1,147 

122 

Available at https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/proposal-ecodesign-sustainable-products-regulation_en  

EN 

70 

EN 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
for agency EEA 

Payments 

=2a+2b +2c 

0,275 

0,432 

0,440 

1,147 

EEA  costs  include  costs  for  2  additional  FTE  (1  TA  and  1  CA),  as  well  as  operational  expenditure,  for  the  purpose  of  the  monitoring  of  the 
environmental claims put on the EU market following the implementation of the directive as per Article 20(4). The Agency will be tasked with a 
detailed analysis of information reported by the Member States as per Article 20(1) – (3) and publish reports every two years with the assessment 
of the evolution  of green claims across the EU. This  estimate includes most evidence for the biannual  reports to  be compiled by the Member 
States and reported to the European level via questionnaires. EEA will propose these questionnaires in agreement with DG ENV and enable them 
by means of a standard electronic tool. The information reported by the Member States will be a combination of statistics around claims in their 
national markets and qualitative description of the nature of false claims and corrective actions implemented. The tasks of these staff will be of 
permanent nature to report from countries and produce the analytical report every two years as well as supporting tasks that are necessary in the 
background (administration, communication, IT development, business support, etc.). 

□ TOTAL operational appropriations  

Commitments 

Payments 

(4) 

(5) 

2024 

2,540 

2,540 

2025 

7,239 

7,239 

2026 

5,696 

5,696 

2027 

5,654 

5,654 

TOTAL 

21,129 

21,129 

TOTAL appropriations  
under HEADING 1 to 3 
of the multiannual financial framework 

Commitments 

=4 

2,540 

7,239 

5,696 

5,654 

21,129 

Heading of multiannual financial  
framework  

7 

‘Administrative expenditure’ 

This section should be filled in using the 'budget data of an administrative nature' to be firstly introduced in the Annex to the Legislative 
Financial Statement (Annex V to the internal rules), which is uploaded to DECIDE for interservice consultation purposes. 

EUR million (to three decimal places) 

2024 

2025 

2026 

2027 and 
beyond 

TOTAL 

EN 

71 

EN 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
DG: ENV 

□ Human resources  

□ Other administrative expenditure  

0,606 

0,606 

0,606 

0,606 

0,180 

0,180 

0,180 

0,180 

TOTAL DG ENV 

Appropriations  

0,786 

0,786 

0,786 

0,786 

2,424 

0,720 

3,144 

Current staff in DG ENV comprises 2 FTE officials (AD) dealing with policy-related matters and 2 FTE officials (AD) dealing with 
methodological issues. This staff will continue to be essential in the future and is expected to deal with the following tasks:  

 

 

 

Activities  related  to  the  green  claim  initiative  such  as  policy  coordination,  green  claim  initiative’s  work  plan  (including  a  partial 
coverage of development of further requirements related to specific claims), team coordination, monitoring, stakeholder relation. These 
activities need the resources of 2 FTE officials. 

Futher development of the EF and other methods for substantiating green claims in line with Art 3: running expert groups, management 
of the transition phase PEFCRs/OEFSRs (including additional task of EC adoption if parts incorporatted in delegated acts according to 
Art 3(4) on further specifying the requirements for the substantiation of explicit environmental claim in the future). These activities need 
the resources of 1 FTE official. 

Managing  secondary  EF  data:  management  of  contracts,  data  checks,  building  database,  etc.  These  activities  need  the  resources  of  1 
FTE official.  

In general Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) related tasks (e.g. method and data development) and task related to method and data development for 
substatiating green claims requires specialised technical/scientific knowledge with scientific PhD-level education and years of experience in the 
field. Attracting such staff with contract agent conditions is not possible. Therefore, these tasks should be covered via official posts, which, if no 
specialised staff is available in-house, should be opened to temporary agent posts. 

Therefore DG ENV requests additional staff (3 AD and 1 END as per the distribution of the positions below) who will: 

 

 

EN 

prepare approximately 6-7 delegated acts according to Art 3(4) on further specifying the requirements for the substantiation of explicit 
environmental claims to regulate specific claims, e.g. on repairability, recyclability, durability or establishing specific life-cycle-based 
rules for certain product groups and sectors; 

prepare implementing acts setting out relevant procedures for approval of new private labelling schemes by the national authorties and 
the format of certificate of conformity of claims and labelling schemes; 

72 

EN 

 
 
 
 

 

 

 

prepare delegated acts further specifying the criteria for approval of environmental labelling schemes referred to in Article 8 in order to 
ensure a uniform application across the Union; 

evaluate notified environmental  labelling  schemes established by public  authorities in  third countries aiming to  operate on the Union 
market and prepare repsective approval decisions by the Commission with the aim of ensuring that these schemes provide added value 
in  terms  of  their  environmental  ambition,  their  coverage  of  environmental  impacts,  environmental  aspects  or  environmental 
performance, or of a certain product group or sector, and meet the requirements of this Directive; 

supervise preparatory, review studies and other studies in preparation of delegated acts; 

develop and manage the EF database relevant for this and other policies such as ESPR, Batteries regulation or taxonomy; 

In addition, there are 2 expert groups involved in this policy and the budget should cover three meetings/year per each expert group. 

TOTAL appropriations 
under HEADING 7 
of the multiannual financial framework  

(Total  commitments  = 
Total payments) 

0,786 

0,786 

0,786 

0,786 

3,144 

2024 

2025 

2026 

2027 and 
beyond 

TOTAL 

EUR million (to three decimal places) 

TOTAL appropriations  
under HEADINGS 1 to 7 
of the multiannual financial framework  

Commitments 

3,326 

8,025 

6,482 

6,440 

Payments 

3,326 

8,025 

6,482 

6,440 

24,273 

24,273 

3.2.2.  Estimated output funded with operational appropriations  

Indicate 

Year 

Year 

Year 

Year 

Enter as many years as necessary to show the 

TOTAL 

Commitment appropriations in EUR million (to three decimal places) 

EN 

73 

EN 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
N 

N+1 

N+2 

N+3 

duration of the impact (see point 1.6) 

OUTPUTS 

o
N

Cost 

o
N

Cost 

o
N

Cost 

o
N

Cost 

o
N

Cost  N

o

Cost 

o
N

Cost 

Total 
No 

Total 
cost 

objectives and 
outputs  

 

Type
123 

Avera
ge 
cost 

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE No 1124… 

- Output 

- Output 

- Output 

Subtotal for specific objective No 1 

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE No 2 ... 

- Output 

Subtotal for specific objective No 2 

TOTALS 

123 
124 

Outputs are products and services to be supplied (e.g.: number of student exchanges financed, number of km of roads built, etc.). 
As described in point 1.4.2. ‘Specific objective(s)…’  

EN 

74 

EN 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
3.2.3.  Estimated impact on the EEA and COM administrative appropriations  

3.2.3.1.  Estimated impact on EEA human resources  

The  proposal/initiative  does  not  require  the  use  of  appropriations  of  an 

 
administrative nature  

  The proposal/initiative requires the use of appropriations of an administrative 
nature, as explained below: 

EUR million (to three decimal places) 

2025 

2026 

2027 

TOTAL 

0,117 

0,240 

0,244 

0,602 

0,063 

0,128 

0,130 

0,320 

Temporary agents (AD 
Grades) 

Temporary 
(AST grades) 

agents 

Contract staff 

Seconded National 
Experts 

TOTAL 

0,180 

0,367 

0,375 

0,922 

Staff requirements (FTE): 

2025 

2026 

2027 

TOTAL 

Temporary agents (AD 
Grades) 

Temporary 
(AST grades) 

agents 

Contract staff 

Seconded National 
Experts 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

TOTAL 

2 

2 

2 

EN 

75 

  EN 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3.2.3.2. Estimated requirements on administrative appropriations in the Commission 

3.2.3.3. Summary of estimated impact on administrative appropriations 

The proposal/initiative does not require the use of appropriations of an 

  
administrative nature  

  The  proposal/initiative  requires 
administrative nature, as explained below: 

the  use  of  appropriations  of  an 

2024 

2025 

2026 

2027 and 
beyond 

TOTAL 

EUR million (to three decimal places) 

HEADING 7 
of the multiannual 
financial framework 

Human resources  

Other administrative 
expenditure  

Subtotal HEADING 7 
of the multiannual 
financial framework  

Outside HEADING 7
of the multiannual 
financial framework  

125 

Human resources  

Other expenditure  
of an administrative 
nature 

Subtotal  
outside HEADING 7 
of the multiannual 
financial framework  

0,606 

0,606 

0,606 

0,606 

2,424 

0,180 

0,180 

0,180 

0,180 

0,720 

0,786 

0,786 

0,786 

0,786 

3,144 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

TOTAL 

0,786 

0,786 

0,786 

0,786 

3,144 

The  appropriations  required  for  human  resources  and  other  expenditure  of  an  administrative  nature  will  be  met  by 
appropriations from the DG that are already assigned to management of the action and/or have been redeployed within the 
DG,  together  if  necessary  with  any  additional  allocation  which  may  be  granted  to  the  managing  DG  under  the  annual 
allocation procedure and in the light of budgetary constraints. 

3.2.3.4. Estimated requirements of human resources  

–    The proposal/initiative does not require the use of human resources.  

125 

Technical  and/or  administrative  assistance  and  expenditure  in  support  of  the  implementation  of  EU programmes 
and/or actions (former ‘BA’ lines), indirect research, direct research. 

EN 

76 

  EN 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
–   The  proposal/initiative  requires  the  use  of  human  resources,  as  explained 

below: 

Estimate to be expressed in full time equivalent units 

2024 

2025 

2026 

2027 
and 
beyond 

20 01 02 01 (Headquarters and Commission’s 
Representation Offices) 

3 

3 

3 

3 

20 01 02 03 (Delegations) 

01 01 01 01  (Indirect research) 

 01 01 01 11 (Direct research) 

Other budget lines (specify) 

20 02 01 (AC, END, INT from the ‘global envelope’) 

1 

1 

1 

1 

20 02 03 (AC, AL, END, INT and JPD in the 
delegations) 

XX 01  xx yy zz  
126

- at Headquarters 

- in Delegations  

01 01 01 02 (AC, END, INT - Indirect research) 

 01 01 01 12 (AC, END, INT - Direct research) 

Other budget lines (specify) 

TOTAL 

4 

4 

4 

4 

Description of tasks to be carried out: 

Officials and temporary staff 

Cf. explanation provided for H7 in section 3.2.1. 

External staff 

Cf. explanation provided for H7 in section 3.2.1. 

126 

Sub-ceiling for external staff covered by operational appropriations (former ‘BA’ lines). 

EN 

77 

  EN 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
3.2.4.  Compatibility with the current multiannual financial framework  

The proposal/initiative: 

–   can be fully financed through redeployment within the relevant heading of the 

Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). 

The LIFE envelope (budget lines 09.02.02) will be used to offset the increase 
of the EEA subsidy. 

–    requires use of the unallocated margin under the relevant heading of the MFF 

and/or use of the special instruments as defined in the MFF Regulation. 

–    requires a revision of the MFF. 

3.2.5.  Third-party contributions  

The proposal/initiative: 

–   does not provide for co-financing by third parties 

–    provides for the co-financing by third parties estimated below: 

Appropriations in EUR million (to three decimal places) 

Year 
N127 

Year 
N+1 

Year 
N+2 

Year 
N+3 

Enter as many years as necessary 
to show the duration of the 
impact (see point 1.6) 

Total 

Specify  the  co-financing 
body  

TOTAL appropriations 
co-financed  

127 

Year N is the year in which implementation of the proposal/initiative starts. Please replace "N" by the 
expected first year of implementation (for instance: 2021). The same for the following years. 

EN 

78 

  EN 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
3.3. 

Estimated impact on revenue  

–   The proposal/initiative has no financial impact on revenue. 

–    The proposal/initiative has the following financial impact: 

 

 

on own resources  

on other revenue 

please indicate, if the revenue is assigned to expenditure lines  

Appropriations 
available for 
the current 
financial year 

Budget revenue line: 

Article …………. 

     EUR million (to three decimal places) 

Impact of the proposal/initiative128 

Year 
N 

Year 
N+1 

Year 
N+2 

Year 
N+3 

Enter as many years as necessary to show 
the duration of the impact (see point 1.6) 

For assigned revenue, specify the budget expenditure line(s) affected. 

Other  remarks  (e.g.  method/formula  used  for  calculating  the  impact  on  revenue  or  any  other 
information). 

128 

As regards traditional own resources (customs duties, sugar levies), the amounts indicated must be net 
amounts, i.e. gross amounts after deduction of 20 % for collection costs. 

EN 

79 

  EN