Recital 1

(1) In order to contribute to the proper functioning of the internal market, based on a high level of consumer protection and environmental protection, and to make progress in the green transition, it is essential that consumers can make informed purchasing decisions and thus contribute to more sustainable consumption patterns. That implies that traders have a responsibility to provide clear, relevant and reliable information. Therefore, specific rules should be introduced in Union consumer law to tackle unfair commercial practices that mislead consumers and prevent them from making sustainable consumption choices, such as practices associated with the early obsolescence of goods, misleading environmental claims (‘greenwashing’), misleading information about the social characteristics of products or traders’ businesses, or non-transparent and non-credible sustainability labels. Those rules will enable competent national bodies to effectively address such practices. Ensuring that environmental claims are fair, understandable and reliable will allow traders to operate on a level playing field and will enable consumers to choose products that are genuinely better for the environment than competing products. This will encourage competition leading to more environmentally sustainable products, thereby reducing the negative impact on the environment.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-20 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.