European Commission intends to withdraw Green Claims Directive

After calls to do so by the European Parliament's largest party EPP, the European Commission has announced its intention to withdraw the Green Claims Directive.

The news was first announced by Carbon Pulse, which asked the Commission about its intentions regarding the Green Claims Directive at its daily press briefing.

The Green Claims Directive aimed to prohibit companies from making unsubstantiated or false claims about a product’s sustainable credentials by forcing them to provide verification of claims such as “biodegradable”, “less polluting” or “bio-based”. Under the proposed law, non-compliance would have been punishable by fines of “at least” 4% of turnover. 

This week, the EPP sent a letter to EU Commissioner Jessika Roswall (obtained by Euractiv), “formally requesting” that the Commission “reconsiders and ultimately withdraws” the Directive – which was approved by the European Parliament last year, ahead of the June 2024 elections that changed its composition.

Green Claims Directive: ‘Overly complex and costly’

With trilogue negotiations nearing their end, the EPP party, to which 188 out of 719 MEPs belong, argued that the Green Claims Directive “risks unduly hindering sustainability communication through procedures that are overly complex, administratively burdensome and costly”. As a result, it warned in the letter that it would not support any trilogue outcome.

Earlier this month, the Parliament’s lead Omnibus negotiator, EPP MEP Jörgen Warborn, also published draft amendments to the European Commission’s Omnibus proposal that would dramatically reduce the scope of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).

Greenwashing regulations in the EU

Beyond the Green Claims Directive, sustainability communication is also regulated by the Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (DECGT), which will be implemented from 2026. This directive bans green claims based entirely on carbon offsets, as well as vague wording such as ‘environmentally-friendly’.

The Green Claims Directive was meant to complement this measure by asking companies to provide evidence around their claims. 

The EPP continues to support the DECGT and says it is convinced that it will “play a crucial role in addressing greenwashing”.