European Parliament backs ban on ads that deceive consumers with ‘green’ claims

This Wednesday, the Plenary Session of the European Parliament gave the green light to this law Will demand evidence of ‘green’ claims and ban ‘ecopostering’ To protect consumers from misleading advertising and early product obsolescence.

The directive, adopted this Wednesday by 593 votes in favour, 21 votes against and 14 abstentions, aims to protect consumers from misleading marketing practices and help them make better purchasing decisions, based on the agreement reached with the Council in September 2023. Has to be done, which you will also have to give. Final approval for the text to be published in the Official Journal of the EU.

To achieve this, a range of problematic marketing habits related to ‘ecopostering’ will be added to the EU’s list of prohibited business practices, Misleading ‘green’ claims and early product obsolescence. The law will ban generic environmental claims such as ‘eco-friendly’, ‘natural’, ‘biodegradable’, ‘climate neutral’ or ‘eco’. No evidence of outstanding environmental performance Recognized materials relevant to the declaration as well as the sustainability label that are not approved by public authorities or based on established certification systems.

Furthermore, if products or organizations are compared with others, these comparisons must be fair and based on equivalent information and data and environmental labeling systems will need to be robust, reliable, transparent and verifiable. A new harmonized label will also be established to highlight products with extended warranties to make this information more visible, as many people do not know that all products enjoy at least a two-year warranty in the EU. Are.

The new rules will also ban unfounded claims about durability such as that a washing machine will last “5,000 wash cycles” if this is not true under normal conditions, as well as restricting replacement of consumables sooner than strictly necessary and requiring accessories to be repairable. Will be provoked to present as. they are not. they are.