Consumers will now be able to shop sustainably more easily thanks to the EU’s Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (ECGT) Directive. The law aims to ensure that consumers can compare products on genuine environmental merits and durability, allowing them to make sustainable purchasing decisions with greater confidence.  

Why it's important

Many consumers want to shop more sustainably but must navigate a maze of green claims. Claims like “eco-friendly”, “green”, “sustainable” or “climate-neutral” confuse consumers as to which ones to trust. Today, green claims appear on 75% of products, and, on average, 50% of them are exaggerated, misleading, or false. Companies can can easily mislead consumers into believing that they can buy almost anything in a sustainable and climate-neutral way from cheese to flights or bank accounts.

In addition, many products break far too quickly and force consumers to buy new ones earlier than should be necessary.    

What BEUC did

BEUC and its members regularly provided evidence to the EU institutions on the need to make it easier for consumers to identify truly sustainable products.  

In 2023, BEUC asked consumers from 16 countries across the globe about their thoughts on how easy it was to shop sustainably. While 76% considered environmental information when buying, only a mere 3% said they could always distinguish false green claims from genuine ones.  

Thanks to BEUC's recommendations and input throughout the years of negotiations, the final deal provides significant improvements for EU consumers:    

• New prohibitions of common misleading green claims, like the use of generic claims on products like “eco”, unless traders can demonstrate that the entire product is of high environmental excellence, for example with the EU Ecolabel.
• New ban on climate neutrality claims on products based on carbon offsetting.  
• New ban on environmental labels that are not based on a certification scheme or established by public authorities.
• Stricter conditions for companies when making claims about future environmental performance. However, they will still be able to claim they are planning to become climate neutral provided they expose how they will achieve it.  
• Companies will no longer be able to make any environmental claim about a product if only one component or aspect is concerned.    
• Prohibitions on misleading practices causing early product obsolescence and preventing repairability.
• Enhanced information for consumers about their products’ two-year legal guarantee through a notice available in the same format across the EU.
• A new “GARAN” label for producers wishing to advertise more durable products. It shows consumers that a producer offers a commercial guarantee of durability for the entire product, free of charge on top of the 2-year legal minimum legal guarantee. 

Timeline

March 2022 – Commission submits a proposal for a directive on ECGT, as part of the Circular Economy Package  

June 2023 – Start of trilogue negotiations  

September 2023 – Political agreement between the Council of the EU and the European Parliament  

January 2024 – Final approval of the agreement by the European Parliament  

February 2024 – Final approval of the agreement by the Council of the EU

March 2024 - Entry into force of the Directive

March 2026 – Transposition deadline

September 2026 - Entry into application of the Directive