Directive 2024/825, otherwise known as the “Greenwashing Directive,” has been introduced to curb commercial and advertising practices that prevent customers and consumers from having accurate, complete, and transparent information regarding environmental practices and planned obsolescence.
To this end, new obligations are established concerning the environmental practices, actions, and measures applied and communicated by companies, as well as the durability and performance of products, to provide consumers with a more concrete and objective understanding of the products offered. Additionally, warranties and repair services are extended.
The main measures implemented by this Directive can be summarized as follows:
Prohibition of Certain Commercial and Advertising Practices:
- – Generic and vague environmental claims such as “green,” “eco-friendly,” “environmentally friendly,” etc., without additional and complementary information that certifies these claims.
- – Basing claims related to the neutral, reduced, or positive impact of a product on greenhouse gas emission offsetting.
- – Making environmental claims about a product or company globally and generically without specifying the true scope of the adopted measure or if it only applies to a specific aspect of the product or the company.
- – Concerning planned obsolescence, actions or practices that hide the negative effects of certain updates on the product’s characteristics that limit its durability, or providing false or incomplete information regarding the product’s lifespan or reparability, while failing to offer clear, accurate, and reliable information.
- – Including environmental or sustainability labels or markings on products that are not based on or backed by a certification system or public authorities.
Additionally, the following are considered misleading commercial practices:
- – Statements about future environmental implications that are not properly justified, supported, and with clearly defined objectives and actions.
- – Promoting irrelevant benefits or advantages that are unrelated to the product or the company marketing it.
- – Product comparison services that omit information about environmental, social, or economic characteristics in their comparison methods, as well as failing to include measures to keep the comparison information up to date.
New Obligations Regarding Transparency and Pre-Contractual Information:
- – Companies must inform consumers about the existence and duration of the commercial warranty, which should cover the entire product and last for more than two years.
- – Providing pre-contractual information about the durability, reparability, and availability of digital products and services.
- – In non-face-to-face contracts, specific and pre-contractual information must be provided about payment procedures, delivery, functionality, complaint systems, etc.
Member states have until March 2026 to transpose this directive into their national legislation.
In summary, this directive aims to give customers and consumers greater control and knowledge about the environmental measures applied by companies, offering better protection against unfair commercial practices and providing more information for making informed and responsible decisions.