Fighting Throwaway Culture: MEPs Ban Greenwashing And Product Misinformation
Members of the European Parliament (MEPSs) have adopted a new law banning greenwashing and misleading product information, in another measure to curb the climate crisis, increase transparency within the consumer’s market, and fight against throwaway culture.
“This law will change the everyday lives of all Europeans! We will step away from throwaway culture, make marketing more transparent, and fight premature obsolescence of goods,” Parliament’s rapporteur Biljana Borzan said.
The Parliament gave its final green light to a directive, initially proposed by the Commission, that will improve product labelling as well as ban the use of misleading environmental claims and focus on the durability of goods.
Some of the standout terms within this new law include the outlawing of generic environmental claims and other misleading product information, allowing only sustainability labels based on approved certification or established by public authorities, and ensuring that information is more visible and legible.
To do all of this the new rules ban the use of general claims like environmentally friendly”, “natural”, “biodegradable”, “climate neutral” or “eco” without proof.
The EU will also introduce a new guarantee extension label as part of the directive that was adopted yesterday with a whopping 593 votes in favour, 21 against, and 14 abstentions.
The law seeks to protect consumers from misleading marketing practices and help them make better purchasing choices.
The use of sustainability labels will also now be regulated, given the confusion caused by their proliferation and failure to use comparative data. In the future, only sustainability labels based on official certification schemes or established by public authorities will be allowed in the EU.
Moreover, the directive will ban claims that a product has a neutral, reduced, or positive impact on the environment because of emissions offsetting schemes.
Another important objective of this new law is making producers and consumers focus more on the “durability of goods”. So, information will be more visible and a new, harmonised label will be created to give more prominence to goods with an extended guarantee period.
The new rules will also ban unfounded durability claims – like saying that a washing machine will last for 5,000 washing cycles if this is not true under normal conditions, prompts to replace consumables earlier than strictly necessary – often the case with printer ink, for example, and presenting goods as repairable when they are not.
“People will be able to choose products that are more durable, repairable, and sustainable thanks to reliable labels and advertisements. Most importantly, companies can no longer trick people by saying that plastic bottles are good because the company planted trees somewhere – or saying that something is sustainable without explaining how. This is a big win for all of us!”
This action was co-financed by the European Union in the frame of the European Parliament’s grant programme in the field of communication. The European Parliament was not involved in its preparation and is, in no case, responsible for or bound by the information or opinions expressed in the context of this action. In accordance with applicable law, the authors, interviewed people, publishers or programme broadcasters are solely responsible. The European Parliament can also not be held liable for direct or indirect damage that may result from the implementation of the action.
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