Parliament has approved a directive that will improve product labeling and ban pseudo-organic marketing.

MEPs have adopted a directive aimed at protecting consumers from deceptive market practices. Thus, the EU list of prohibited trade practices was expanded to include questionable marketing strategies involving advertising a product as organic when it does not meet the appropriate standards.

The new regulations are intended to simplify and make the labeling of goods more credible. It will no longer be possible to continue using unsubstantiated environmental claims such as „eco-friendly”, „natural”, „biodegradable”, „climate neutral” or „eco-friendly”.

The directive will regulate the issue of environmental labels so that in the future they can only be used in the European Union based on official certification systems or certification systems introduced by public authorities.

Moreover, under the provisions of the directive, manufacturers will no longer be able to claim that a given product has no impact on the environment, or that its impact is limited or even positive, relying only on emission offsetting systems.

The directive aims to make producers and consumers focus more on the durability of products. Therefore, warranty information will be more visible in the future. There will also be a uniform marking that will better highlight products with an extended warranty period.

Other practices will also be prohibited: unfounded claims about product durability (for example, claiming that a washing machine can perform 5,000 washing cycles when this is not true under normal circumstances); suggestions to replace consumables sooner than necessary (for example, printer ink cartridges), and false claims that products are repairable.

The directive must now be approved by the Council. It will then be published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Member States will have 24 months to transpose it into national law.

The new directive is intended to complement the directive on environmental claims, which is currently being developed by committees of the European Parliament. This directive will be more detailed – it will more precisely define the conditions for the use of environmental claims.

Source: info. pressSource:https://odpowiedzialnybiznes.pl/aktualno%C5%9Bci/stanowcza-kroki-ue-w-kierunku-zdrowienia-greenwashingu/

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