§4.1.1.4 Application of Article 7 of the UCPD to environmental claims

Article 7 UCPD lists specific elements that are relevant when assessing whether a commercial practice involves a misleading omission. Green claims can be misleading if they consist of vague and general statements of environmental benefits (see also previous section 4.1.1.3 on misleading actions). Such claims are less likely to be misleading under Article 7 if they are supplemented by prominent specifications or explanatory statements on the product’s environmental impact, for example by limiting the claim to specific environmental benefits. Providing such supplementary information helps ensuring compliance with Article 7(4)(a) (in the case of an invitation to purchase) which forbids to provide consumers with material information related to the ‘main characteristics of the product’ in ‘an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner’. If the trader provides supplementary information to consumers, e.g. on their website, the information should be clear and understandable for the average consumer. The complexity and technical nature of the information should not be used to mislead consumers about the veracity of the green claims. In case environmental claims are made on the packaging of products and/or other communication channels (e.g. posters, billboards, magazines), which have limited space for specifications, the location of the main environmental claim and supplementary information about the claim should enable an average consumer to understand the link between both. If supplementary information is not provided or provided in an unclear or ambiguous manner, it may be considered misleading, depending on the assessment of the circumstances of the individual case. If there is no space to specify the environmental claim, then the claim should generally not be made. By analogy, in the area of nutrition and health claims on foods, point 3 of the Annex to Commission Implementing Decision 2013/63/EU (310) provides that when referring to general, non-specific health benefits, it is required to accompany such references by a specific health claim from the lists of permitted health claims in the Union Register. For the purposes of the Regulation, the specific authorised health claim accompanying the statement making reference to general non-specific health benefits, should be made ‘next to’ or ‘following’ such statement. According to the Court, when a reference to general, non-specific health benefits of a nutrient or food appears on the front of the packaging, whereas the specific health claim intended to accompany it appears only on the back of that packaging, there should be a clear reference, such as an asterisk, between the two, to ensure the consumer’s comprehension (311). For example: — Traders sometimes provide information about environmental claims in a way that requires the consumer to take additional action to access (e.g. a consumer may have to click once more in the context of a social media post or a product list to get the necessary supplementary information), which may be misleading in some cases. Representatives from the CPC network of national consumer authorities considered that, depending on the circumstances of the case and in particular the limitations of the medium, it may be misleading to require the consumer to take such action to obtain the relevant information, especially if it is possible to provide that information in a more prominent way, e.g. next to the claim (312). — Traders might choose to display certain environmental claims prominently (e.g. at the front of a product packaging), while leaving additional information about the claim in a less prominent location (e.g. at the back of the product packaging). Representatives from the CPC network of national consumer authorities that, depending on the circumstances of the case and in particular the limitations of the medium, this may be misleading (313). — A court considered that the qualifications for vague claims such as ‘eco’ and ‘organic’ for certain products should be placed directly next to the claims. It is not enough to place the qualification on another page on the website (one click away from the claim) (314). — Claims that a product is ‘compostable’ on the packaging are likely to be misleading if it is only compostable through industrial means and if the packaging do not specify the actions the consumer needs to take for the product to compost. The use of a general benefit claim (without further qualifications) may be justified in some cases. This is the case for products with an ‘organic’ claim covered by Regulation (EU) 2018/848 on organic production and labelling of organic products. This could be also the case if a product is covered by a license to use the ecolabel of a publicly run ecolabel scheme (such as the EU Ecolabel, the Nordic Ecolabel ‘the Swan’ or the German 'Blue Angel') or other robust and reputable labelling schemes subject to third party verification (e.g. Article 11 of the Ecolabel Regulation refers to nationally or regionally officially recognised EN ISO 14024 type I ecolabelling schemes). This could also be the case if the life cycle assessment studies of the product have proven its environmental performance (315). These studies should be made according to recognised or generally accepted methods applicable to the relevant product type and should be third-party verified. Such environmental performance evaluations may involve comparisons (see also section 4.1.1.7 on comparative environmental claims). If such methods have not yet been developed in the relevant field, traders should refrain from using general benefit claims. For such products, traders should nevertheless ensure transparency concerning the relevant environmental aspects, and make sure that such information is easily available to consumers, including by displaying the relevant logo. Similarly, an environmental claim could be misleading under Article 7(2) if it is presented in an unclear, unintelligible or unclear manner. On the basis of a case-by-case assessment, this could be the case if the scope and boundaries of the claim are not made clear. For example: It is not clear whether the claim covers the whole product or only one of its components, or the company’s overall environmental performance or only certain of its activities or which environmental impact or process the claim addresses. When making an environmental claim, the product’s main environmental impacts are relevant. Furthermore, an environmental claim concerning a product must relate to an actual environmental impact of that specific product and should be distinguished from more general environmental claims regarding the trader, its practices and sustainability policies. For example: A trader displays various general environmental claims on its website, such as statements about its corporate social responsibility programme and a sustainability label that is relevant for certain product ranges. In order to avoid misleading consumers, the trader should ensure that environmental claims that are displayed on the product landing page concern the actual environmental impact of the specific product and are distinguished from other, broader claims regarding that trader and its practices (316).

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07