Empowering Consumers Directive (EU) 2024/825
The EU’s active anti-greenwashing law — applying from 27 September 2026
What the Empowering Consumers Directive is
Directive (EU) 2024/825 is the EU’s primary law against greenwashing. Adopted on 28 February 2024, it amends the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and the Consumer Rights Directive. The transposition deadline was 27 March 2026; application starts on 27 September 2026.
The bans enter Annex I of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, which makes them automatically unfair — no case-by-case assessment required.
What does the Empowering Consumers Directive mean for your digital product passport?
The directive bans environmental claims you cannot back up, and enforcement happens after the product is on sale. Your defence is the data you hold on the day an authority asks: recycled content, carbon footprint, composition. A passport keeps that evidence per product, for the manufacturers who make the claims and the retailers and service centres who repeat them at the shelf.
Shoppers see the same data when they scan the QR code. DigitalProductPassport by WIARA saves every publish as a new version and logs who changed each field and when. Open a demo passport or check whether your product needs one.
Four practices that become automatically unfair
What is banned
What else changes
New pre-contractual information
A commercial guarantee of durability, availability of after-sales and repair services, a repairability score where applicable, and environmentally friendly delivery options. The Commission has also adopted rules standardising consumer information on guarantees and durability.
Penalties
For widespread infringements the maximum fine must be at least 4% of the trader's annual turnover in the Member States concerned; where turnover figures are unavailable, at least €2 million. That is a minimum for the cap, not a minimum penalty. Member States may set higher maximums. Enforcement is national, by consumer-protection authorities, with cross-border cooperation.
The ECD is now the only instrument
The proposed Green Claims Directive, which would have required ex-ante verification, was flagged for withdrawal in June 2025. The ECD is today the sole active EU anti-greenwashing law — and it enforces after the fact, not before.
Publish this passport with DigitalProductPassport by WIARA
The Empowering Consumers Directive bans claims you cannot evidence. A passport is where the evidence lives, per product, at a URL anyone can open.
DigitalProductPassport by WIARA is a cloud platform built by WIARA, a software company. You enter the product data once; the platform publishes a passport page with a permanent QR code and a GS1 Digital Link URL, in all 24 official EU languages, keeping public, professional and authority fields apart. ESPR and CPR templates come ready made.
The free plan covers 3 passports in total. What the platform does is set out on the product page, and the plans and their limits are on pricing.
Environmental claims and the Digital Product Passport
Frequently asked questions
Only with recognised excellent environmental performance under a Type I scheme. Otherwise the claim must be specified on the same medium — and if there is no space to specify it, it should generally not be made.
It was flagged for withdrawal in June 2025 after political opposition. Some elements may return in a targeted proposal, but for now the ECD is the only active instrument.
Enforcement is post-market: an authority checks after the product is on sale, and your defence is the quality of the data at the time of investigation. The verified recycled-content figures, measured carbon footprint and documented composition the DPP is built to carry are exactly the evidence the ECD requires. National authorities have already acted against major retailers over unsubstantiated claims — before the ECD tightened the rules.
Related solutions
Solutions
DPP for Retailers and Service Centres
DPP simplifies warranties, repairs and product tracking. Retailers and service centres receive accurate information for higher quality service.
DPP for End Consumers
DPP provides transparency – composition, origin and recycling of products, so consumers can choose responsibly and make informed decisions.
DPP for Manufacturers
Manufacturers create and maintain DPP, prove compliance and sustainability, earn trust and improve their processes.
