Paused, not dead. The Green Claims Directive has not moved since June 2025, when the Commission withdrew it and the final trilogue was cancelled. The anti-greenwashing rules that apply anyway from 27 September 2026 come from the Empowering Consumers Directive. If a green claim sits on your hang tag today, that is the law you answer to.
Key takeaways
Proof first: the directive would have required every environmental claim to rest on an assessment using accurate data, recognised standards and lifecycle analysis.
Verified before use: an accredited verifier would certify each claim and label and issue an EU-wide certificate of conformity.
Paused since June 2025: the Commission announced its withdrawal. The Empowering Consumers Directive bans unproven generic claims from 27 September 2026 regardless.
Labels under rules: labelling schemes would have to be transparent, proportionate for SMEs, expert-built, stakeholder-reviewed, with a complaints route.
What is a green claim?
Any statement, label or image that says or implies a product, service or company is better for the environment. "Recycled", "climate neutral", "eco-friendly", a green leaf on the hang tag: all of these are green claims in EU law.
The Green Claims Directive would have required scientific substantiation and third-party verification for every one of them. Those requirements are on hold. The ban on making a generic claim without proof is not. It arrives with Directive (EU) 2024/825 on 27 September 2026, one of the EU product rules in these guides.
For a brand the question is not which directive survives. It is whether the certificate behind each claim exists and can be found.
EU Green Claims Directive status in 2026: paused since June 2025
In June 2025 the Commission announced it would withdraw the Green Claims Directive proposal and paused the process. The reason given was feedback that the rules would fall too hard on micro-enterprises. The final negotiations between Parliament and Council were cancelled. Nothing has revived it since.
Environmental claims are not unregulated in the meantime. Directive (EU) 2024/825 already bans generic claims such as "green", "eco-friendly" or "carbon neutral" without proof, and applies through national law from 27 September 2026.
The proposal may come back in a revised form, or parts of it may land in other legislation. Either way the evidence behind each claim is what a brand will be asked for; the Green Claims Directive status changes the paperwork, not the proof.
Green Claims Directive
- Sets goals for EU countries to achieve
- Each country passes its own national law
- Flexibility in implementation
- Status: Paused
Empowering Consumers
- Prohibits generic environmental claims
- Bans carbon-offset neutrality claims
- National laws by March 2026
- Status: In force Sep 2026
Why the Commission proposed it
The directive started from one number: an EU study in 2020 found that more than half of environmental claims on the market were vague, misleading or unverified. Consumers cannot choose the better product if the claims cannot be compared.
The proposal set EU-wide rules for how a claim is proven and communicated. It builds on the Empowering Consumers Directive, which already bans misleading advertising, by saying exactly what evidence a claim needs.
What the directive set out to do
- Fewer unproven claims on the EU market, and a faster move to circular products.
- Consumers able to compare claims and act on them.
- The same rules for every trader, so a brand that does the work is not undercut by one that only says it did.
What the directive would have required
Four pillars would have applied, each carried into national law by the member states: proof, communication, labelling schemes and verification. The flow for one claim looked like this.
Brand Makes Claim
The brand makes an environmental claim about a product or its operations and gathers the evidence.
Independent Assessment
An accredited verifier checks the claim against scientific evidence, lifecycle data and the relevant standards.
Certificate of Conformity
If it passes, an EU-wide certificate is issued and the claim can go on the label and into marketing.
Proof: every claim substantiated before it is made
Terms to know · Green Claim
Any voluntary environmental claim made in commercial communications, such as "carbon neutral", "biodegradable", or "made from recycled materials", that must be substantiated with scientific evidence under this directive.
A claim would need an assessment that says whether it covers the whole product or one part, and rests on scientific data and recognised standards. It would have to show a real benefit over the product's life, cover every relevant impact, go beyond what the law already requires, and beat the industry norm. Trade-offs, carbon offsets and the use of primary data would all have to be stated.
A claim that one product has less impact than another would need the same data, method, scope, impacts and assumptions on both sides.
Wording: how a claim may be stated
A claim could be made only with the proof above behind it. If the benefit depends on how the product is used, the instructions go with the claim. A claim about the future needs a date. An overall score could use only an EU-approved method.
With each claim: the environmental aspects covered, the standards applied, the studies and calculations, how the benefit was achieved, the certificate of conformity, any offsetting, and a plain summary in the language of the country of sale.
Labels: only schemes with approved verification
A labelling scheme is a certification that a product, process or trader meets a label's rules. The Commission would keep the list of approved labels.
- Ownership, decision-making, objectives, and compliance monitoring must be publicly available and easy to understand
- Requirements to join must be proportionate to company size and turnover, to not exclude SMEs
- Scheme requirements must be developed by experts and reviewed by a diverse group of stakeholders
- A complaint and resolution mechanism must exist
- Procedures and consequences for non-compliance must be established
Only labels established under EU law could show an overall score. Member states could not start new national schemes, and existing ones would have to meet the rules. A label from outside the EU would need approval and a shown benefit over the EU ones.
Verification: an accredited third party checks first
A trader would review the evidence behind each claim at least every five years, or sooner when something changes, and an accredited body would certify claims and labels before use.
- Be independent with no ties to the product or trader being evaluated
- Maintain objectivity and avoid conflicts of interest
- Act with professional integrity, without undue influence
- Possess expertise and competent staff for thorough evaluations
- Protect confidentiality of all information obtained during verification
- Take full responsibility for subcontractors involved in verification
Penalties: what member states must impose
Each member state would name an authority to enforce the rules, and anyone could report a trader.
Penalties would include:
- Fines taking away profits from wrongdoing, with higher fines for repeat offenders
- Confiscation of revenue earned from selling products involved in violations
- Temporary bans preventing the company from doing business with government for up to a year
- Maximum fine of at least 4% of the trader's annual revenue in the affected country
Maximum fine floor
Of the trader's yearly revenue in the member state concerned; national law could set it higher.
Green Claims Directive timeline and updates
EU Commission publishes the Green Claims Directive proposal
EU Parliament publishes amendments to the directive
EU Council publishes their general approach
European Commission announces intention to withdraw the directive. Legislative process paused.
Empowering Consumers Directive takes effect through national legislation, prohibiting unsubstantiated environmental claims
What brands should do while it is paused
Whether the directive returns or not, the claim on your product will be tested against evidence from 27 September 2026. The work is the same either way: keep the certificate behind every claim, and link it from the product.
- One record per claim: the transaction certificate, the test report or the audit that supports it, with the issuer and the standard named.
- Lifecycle data from the supply chain: raw material, manufacturing, transport and end of life, per product, the inputs a lifecycle assessment needs.
- The proof on the product: a passport the customer scans, with the claim and its evidence on the same page.
- Version control: the evidence as it stood when the claim was made, ready for a verifier or an authority.
That is the operation described under sustainability claims your customers can verify: in Tappr the certificate is retrieved from the product record, not assembled from inboxes when the letter arrives.
Green Claims Directive questions, answered
What is the Green Claims Directive status today?
Is the Green Claims Directive still happening?
Does this affect non-EU companies?
Is there a greenwashing directive in force?
What is the difference between a directive and a regulation?
Official sources
Built from these official sources: