Green finanje – Photo Pixabay
(BRUSSELS) – An EU Parliament committee adopted new rules Wednesday on how firms can validate environmental marketing claims, and the information they need to provide to justify these claims.
The so-called ‘green claims directive’ adopted by the Internal Market and Environment committee, complements an already-approved EU ban on greenwashing, and creates a framework and deadlines for checking evidence and approving claims, and specifies what happens to companies who break the law.
MEPs agreed with the Commission that companies should submit any future environmental marketing claims for approval before using them. The claims would be assessed by accredited verifiers within 30 days, according to adopted text. Companies who break the rules may be excluded from procurements, lose their revenues and face a fine of at least at 4% of their annual turnover.
The Commission should draw up a list of less complex claims and products that could benefit from faster or simpler verification, MEPs say. It should also decide whether green claims about products containing hazardous substances should remain possible. MEPs also agreed that micro enterprises should be excluded from the new obligations and SMEs should get one extra year before applying the rules.
MEPs confirmed the recent EU ban on green claims based solely on the so-called carbon offsetting schemes. They now specify that companies could still mention offsetting schemes if they have already reduced their emissions as much as possible and use these schemes for residual emissions only. The carbon credits of the schemes must be certified, as established under the Carbon Removals Certification Framework.
Special rules would also apply to comparative claims (i.e. ads comparing two different goods), including if the two products are made by the same producer. Among other provisions, companies should demonstrate they have used the same methods to compare relevant aspects of the products. Also, claims that products have been improved cannot be based on data that are more than five years old.
