EU-Proposal for a Green Claims Directive

On 22 March 2023, the European Commission presented a proposal for a directive on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims Directive).

Bitkom welcomes the efforts of the EU Commission to create more transparency in competition when it comes to environmental claims and to avoid “greenwashing”.

However, in our view, the present draft directive does not appear to be suitable for achieving the objectives pursued by the Commission. Rather, the draft would create significant additional bureaucracy and increased burdens for both administrations and businesses. Bitkom therefore rejects the draft directive in its present version.

In particular, the proposal contained in Art. 10 for a reservation of authorisation for environmental claims and the accompanying conformity assessment and certification procedure is, in our view, neither suitable nor necessary to achieve the objectives stated in the draft. Rather, it represents a disproportionate encroachment on the protected legal positions of the companies. Mandatory ex ante scrutiny should therefore either be abolished altogether or be designed to minimise the red tape and costs incurred by businesses.

The German version of the position paper can be downloaded here.