Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (2024/825)

Unfair commercial practices law already banned deception, but it had to be proven case by case that a green claim was misleading. The 2024 directive adds several practices to the blacklist, banned in all circumstances: a generic claim such as environmentally friendly without recognized performance, a sustainability label based neither on a certification scheme nor on a public authority, and a neutrality claim resting on offsetting alone. The reversal is clear: the burden of proof moves to the company, before any challenge. For an insurer selling a product presented as sustainable, the directive applies to its own communications, on top of financial rules. It stands alone since the announced abandonment of the green claims proposal.