The European Union has given its final green light on a law that will ban carbon neutral claims, aiming to protect consumers against greenwashing.
The rules will aim to make product labelling clearer and more trust worthy by banning environmental claims such as “environmentally friendly”, “natural”, “biodegradable”, “climate neutral” or “eco” without proof.
It will also ban claims that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive impact on the environment because of emissions offsetting schemes.
MEP Biljana Borzan said brands will “no longer trick people” by claiming products are sustainable based on the fact “the company planted trees somewhere”.
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The ban will also encourage producers and consumers to pay greater attention to the durability on goods and labelling related to guarantee information.
Tue new rules will also ban durability claims (for example 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 and presenting goods as repairable when they are not.
Some 593 MEPs voted in favour of the ban, with 21 against and 14 abstentions. The law needs to receive a final approval from the Council before being published. EU member states will then have two years to impose it into national law.
