Day one of the green-claims ban: what changed, and where it did not

Since 27 September 2026, saying a product is "eco-friendly" without being able to prove it is a blacklisted commercial practice across the European Union. So is calling it "climate neutral" on the strength of purchased offsets. So is running your own sustainability label when the scheme behind it is neither a certification scheme nor established by a public authority.

That is Directive (EU) 2024/825. Article 4(1) is unusually plain about the date: Member States "shall apply those measures from 27 September 2026."

That sentence is worth reading slowly, because it does not say what most coverage says it says.

A directive binds States, not traders

The measures that now apply are national measures. The directive tells Member States to adopt them and to apply them from this date. It does not itself reach into a shop and make a claim illegal.

Where transposition is done, the distinction is academic. The national rule is there and it bites. Germany completed on 19 February 2026, Italy on 9 March. In those markets the blacklist is live, enforceable and attached to national penalties.

Where transposition is not done, the obligation that matured on 27 September belongs to the government, not to the trader. On 28 May 2026 the Commission opened infringement procedures against 20 Member States for failing to communicate complete transposition. Traders in those States are in an odd position: no new national rule to comply with, and no safe harbour either. The general prohibition on misleading practices never went away. It simply required a case-by-case assessment that the blacklist now removes.

The practical consequence is about exports, and it is why the distinction buys nobody time. A manufacturer in a State that has not transposed, selling into Germany, is inside the German rules already. The rules travel with the market you sell into, not with the market you are registered in.

Bulgaria shows how close the timing can run. Its transposing law was adopted on 10 September 2026 and promulgated in the State Gazette on 24 September, one day inside the fifteen-day constitutional deadline and three days before the directive's date. The green-claims prohibitions apply there from 27 September. The law was six months late against the 27 March transposition deadline.

What is actually on the blacklist

Annex I of Directive 2005/29/EC lists the practices that are unfair in all circumstances. There is no balancing test and no argument that consumers were not in fact misled. The Empowering Consumers Directive adds to it.

Generic environmental claims such as "eco-friendly", "green", "climate friendly" or "sustainable", where the trader cannot demonstrate recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to the claim. In practice that means the EU Ecolabel or an ISO 14024 Type I scheme. A generic claim can be rescued by specifying it, on the same medium as the claim itself.

Carbon-neutrality claims based on offsetting: "climate neutral", "CO₂ neutral", "net zero", "climate compensated". Claims about a product's actual lifecycle impact survive. Claims bought from a compensation scheme do not.

Sustainability labels not based on a certification scheme and not established by public authorities. An own-brand label is still possible, but the scheme behind it has to be open to competitors and verified by an independent third party.

Three quieter ones catch more companies than the headline bans. Presenting a legal requirement as a distinctive feature, which means advertising compliance as a benefit. Claiming a whole product qualifies when only a component does. And durability and repairability claims that do not hold, including staying silent about what a software update will do to the device.

The 4% figure, stated correctly

This number is repeated constantly and almost always inverted, including by people selling compliance software.

Article 13(3) of Directive 2005/29/EC requires that where penalties are imposed under Article 21 of Regulation (EU) 2017/2394, the coordinated-enforcement route for widespread infringements, the maximum amount of the fine must be at least 4% of the trader's annual turnover in the Member State or Member States concerned. Where turnover figures are unavailable, Article 13(4) sets that maximum at no less than EUR 2 million.

So 4% is a floor on the ceiling. It is not a minimum penalty, it is not what a first offence costs, and it is not a share of global turnover. Member States may set the cap higher.

What an individual fine comes to is a national question, decided by national authorities against national methodology. Bulgaria's new law caps the fine at 4% of turnover realised in Bulgaria and leaves the amount to a methodology from its consumer protection authority. As at 28 September we could not find that methodology published.

Why this reaches passport data

The ban is not on sustainability. It is on sustainability without evidence.

A generic claim survives by becoming specific, and specific means verified composition, measured recycled content, a calculated lifecycle footprint, durability data, repair information and spare-part availability. Those are the fields the Digital Product Passport standardises.

That puts manufacturers in textiles, furniture, construction materials and steel in a position that sounds contradictory and is not: they need passport-grade data years before a passport is mandatory for their sector. The textiles delegated act is expected in 2027–2028. The duty not to overstate your product is already running.

Two things this is not

It is not the Green Claims Directive. That proposal, the one that would have required claims to be verified before publication, was flagged for withdrawal by the Commission on 20 June 2025. The Empowering Consumers Directive is the live EU anti-greenwashing instrument. Anyone planning around Green Claims is planning around a text that is not coming.

It is not the ESPR, and no passport became mandatory on 27 September. The ESPR is Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, in force since 18 July 2024 and working through delegated acts per product group. This directive governs what you may say, not what you must publish.

One related instrument lands on the same date and is easy to confuse: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1960 brings in a harmonised legal-guarantee notice and the "GARAN" durability label. The QR code on that label resolves to the Commission's Your Europe portal, not to a product passport. And the EU A–E repairability score still covers only smartphones and tablets, since 20 June 2025. For textiles, furniture, construction materials and steel the operative duty is repair information, not a score.

The full overview is on our Empowering Consumers Directive page, and the date is logged in our regulatory changes.

Sources: Directive (EU) 2024/825, Article 4(1) · Directive 2005/29/EC, Article 13(3) and (4), consolidated text 02005L0029-20220528 · Regulation (EU) 2017/2394, Article 21 · Commission infringement package, 28 May 2026 · Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1960 · Bulgarian State Gazette, extraordinary issue No. 87 of 24 September 2026.