Green Claims After the EmpCo Directive

Green claims after EmpCo: the short answer

Since 27 September 2026, green claims towards consumers in Germany are governed by stricter rules. The Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (EU) 2024/825 (EmpCo) amended the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, and Germany transposed it through amendments to the Act against Unfair Competition (Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb, UWG). The consolidated UWG now defines environmental claims, generic environmental claims and sustainability labels, adds per se prohibitions to the annex to § 3(3) UWG and tightens the rules on claims about future environmental performance in § 5 UWG. Generic claims such as "eco-friendly" without recognised excellent environmental performance, sustainability labels not based on a certification scheme or set by public authorities, and offset-based product claims of climate neutrality are now prohibited outright.

The separate Green Claims Directive proposed by the Commission in 2023, which would have required prior verification of explicit environmental claims, has not been adopted: the process stalled in 2025 after the Commission signalled its intention to withdraw the proposal. For companies, the UWG as amended is therefore the decisive framework for green claims after EmpCo, interpreted in light of the Federal Court of Justice's strict case law on environmental advertising.

Key definitions in the amended UWG

The amended § 2(2) UWG introduces definitions taken from the Directive:

• Environmental claim (Umweltaussage): any message or representation in a commercial context, including text, images, graphics, symbols, labels, brand names, company names or product names, that is not mandatory under law and states or implies that a product, product category, brand or trader has a positive or zero impact on the environment, is less damaging than others or has improved its impact over time.
• Generic environmental claim (allgemeine Umweltaussage): an environmental claim in written or oral form, including audiovisual media, not contained in a sustainability label, where the specification of the claim is not provided in clear and prominent terms on the same medium.
• Sustainability label (Nachhaltigkeitssiegel): any voluntary trust mark, quality mark or equivalent, public or private, that aims to set apart and promote a product, process or business by reference to its environmental or social characteristics, or both.
• Recognised excellent environmental performance: environmental performance compliant with the EU Ecolabel, officially recognised national or regional EN ISO 14024 type I ecolabelling schemes or top environmental performance under other applicable EU law.

New per se prohibitions

The annex to § 3(3) UWG, the German "black list", contains practices that are always unfair towards consumers. The EmpCo amendments added several items concerning green claims.

Because these are per se prohibitions, no case-by-case assessment of whether consumers are actually misled is required. Competitors, qualified associations and consumer organisations can enforce them through cease-and-desist letters and injunctions, and courts will not weigh the actual effect of the claim on consumers.

Misleading actions: future performance and irrelevant benefits

Beyond the black list, the amended § 5 UWG treats certain practices as misleading. Most importantly, an environmental claim to consumers about future environmental performance is misleading unless it is backed by clear, objective, publicly available and verifiable commitments set out in a detailed and realistic implementation plan. The plan must include measurable, time-bound targets and other relevant elements needed to support implementation, such as allocation of resources, and must be regularly verified by an independent third-party expert whose findings are made available to consumers.

The amended rules also address advertising benefits for consumers that are irrelevant and do not result from a feature of the product or business, for example presenting legal requirements as a distinctive feature. Comparisons of products on environmental or social characteristics must be accompanied by information on the method of comparison, the products compared and the measures to keep information up to date.

The Federal Court of Justice's strict approach

Even before EmpCo, German courts applied strict standards to green claims. In its judgment of 27 June 2024 – I ZR 98/23, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) held that advertising a product as "climate neutral" is misleading if the term is not explained in the advertisement itself. The term is ambiguous because it can mean either that emissions were avoided or that they were offset, and because reduction and compensation are not equivalent, the specific meaning must be made clear in the advertising, not merely via a QR code or website. The BGH emphasised that environmental advertising, like health advertising, requires particularly strict standards of accuracy and clarity.

The EmpCo rules go further. Product-related climate neutrality claims based on offsetting are now prohibited per se under Annex no. 4c, regardless of explanation. Claims based on actual emission reductions in the product's own value chain remain possible if they are specific, substantiated and explained in the advertisement itself, in line with the BGH's requirements for clarity.

Sustainability labels and certification schemes

Under the amended UWG, a sustainability label may only be displayed if it is based on a certification scheme or established by public authorities. A certification scheme must be open to all traders under transparent, fair and non-discriminatory conditions, its requirements must be developed by the scheme owner in consultation with experts and stakeholders, and compliance must be monitored by an independent third party. In-house labels created by a company for its own products will therefore usually need to be discontinued or converted into specific claims.

Companies should review packaging, websites, online shop filters and social media content for self-created labels, icons and badges. Companies should check whether any transitional arrangement applies to existing stock; absent one, packaging and materials used after 27 September 2026 must comply, so phased replacement must be planned.

Corporate claims, social claims and durability

Green claims after EmpCo are not limited to product packaging. The definition of an environmental claim includes brand names, company names and corporate messages, so statements such as "we are a sustainable company" on a website accessible to consumers can fall within the rules. Brand names that suggest environmental benefits deserve particular attention, because changing them takes time and may affect trade mark portfolios.

The sustainability label definition also covers social characteristics, such as fair working conditions. Labels highlighting social aspects must meet the same certification scheme requirements as environmental labels. Claims about social performance that are not labels are assessed under the general rules on misleading practices.

EmpCo also addressed durability and repairability. The UWG annex now contains a per se prohibition (no. 23d) of misleading information on software updates, durability and repairability for goods and goods with digital elements, and related provisions target claims about durability that cannot be substantiated. Companies marketing products as long-lasting or easy to repair should review these claims together with their environmental claims, since consumer organisations often examine them together.

Interaction with sustainability reporting

Many companies publish climate targets and transition plans in their sustainability reports. Repeating these targets in consumer-facing advertising triggers the stricter requirements for future performance claims, including independent verification. Companies should decide deliberately which sustainability information they use in marketing and ensure that reported data and advertised claims are consistent.

B2B claims and enforcement

The EmpCo provisions apply to commercial practices towards consumers. Green claims in purely business-to-business communication are assessed under the general prohibition of misleading practices in § 5 UWG and the BGH's strict standards, which in practice lead to similar requirements for specificity and substantiation. Claims in corporate reporting, investor communication and financing documents are additionally subject to capital markets and reporting rules.

Enforcement in Germany is primarily private. Competitors, trade associations and qualified consumer organisations can demand cease-and-desist declarations with contractual penalties and seek preliminary injunctions within short deadlines. Consumer associations have been particularly active against climate-related advertising. In addition, consumers may have individual claims for damages under § 9(2) UWG for culpable infringements that cause them to take a transactional decision.

Green claims checklist after EmpCo

1. Inventory all environmental claims, labels and images across products, packaging, websites and campaigns.
2. Remove generic claims unless recognised excellent environmental performance can be demonstrated.
3. Replace offset-based product climate claims with specific, substantiated information on reductions.
4. Check sustainability labels against the certification scheme requirements.
5. Back future performance claims with a public, detailed implementation plan and independent verification.
6. Ensure claims about part of a product or business are not presented as relating to the whole.
7. Document substantiation for every claim and establish legal sign-off for new campaigns.

Internal governance matters as much as individual wording. Companies that run many campaigns, often through agencies and influencers, need a central register of approved claims with their evidence, a sign-off process that includes legal and sustainability experts, and contractual obligations for agencies and influencers to use only approved claims. Training marketing teams on the new black-list items is usually the most effective preventive step, because most problematic claims originate in creative drafts rather than in formal product information.

Illustration: a hypothetical German outdoor apparel brand used the terms "sustainable collection" and a self-designed green leaf label on its website and hang tags, and advertised a jacket as "climate neutral" because of offsetting. After the EmpCo rules took effect, it removes the generic claim and the in-house label, replaces the climate neutrality claim with specific information on recycled content and emissions reductions in production, and keeps its corporate net-zero target only in a form linked to a published plan.

How TRW & Co helps with green claims after EmpCo

We advise companies on green claims after EmpCo and the amended UWG. We audit advertising and labels, assess substantiation, design approval processes, review implementation plans for future performance claims and defend companies against cease-and-desist letters and injunction proceedings. We also align marketing claims with sustainability reporting and supply chain information. Our work connects with our compliance and ESG and commercial practices. See also net-zero claims and carbon offsets, the BGH's climate-neutral advertising ruling and UWG basics. To review your claims, contact us.