No more vague eco-labels: Brussels moves to police green claims

A tag that says "eco", a patch of green on a label and the phrase "kind to the planet" are losing their legal footing. The European Commission is drafting rules on environmental claims, known as green claims, that would force companies to back their statements with scientific, verifiable methods. Consumers get lost in the tangle of labels, the Commission document says, trust in them is very low, and some claims are unreliable. That is why Brussels is moving against greenwashing. The proposal is tied to two other EU initiatives: empowering consumers for the green transition and the farm to fork strategy.

A ban on generalities

Running alongside it is Directive (EU) 2024/825 on empowering consumers for the green transition. It entered into force in early 2024, the deadline for transposition passed on 27 March 2026, and full enforcement begins on 27 September 2026. Among other things, it bans general claims of climate neutrality unless they rest on credible data. It also bans advertising emission offsets in a way that suggests a product has no environmental impact. The EU counts the cost of doing nothing: premature disposal of goods accounts for 261 million tonnes of CO2 a year, and the waste it generates reaches 35 million tonnes.

Overproduction without data

The trouble is that the clothing industry still has not measured its own scale. As 300Gospodarka reports, a garment now goes from design to production in just 15 days. According to Fashion Revolution, around 85 percent of large brands still do not disclose figures on annual production, despite growing evidence of overproduction. The claims that do exist also call for caution. H&M promises to cut emissions by 56 percent by 2030 and to reach zero emissions in 2040. Inditex, the owner of Zara, names the same target year. A declaration alone, however, is not the same as an accounting.

What counts for the customer

The EU wants all clothing sold on its market to be durable and fit for repair and recycling by 2030, with tags carrying transparent information, including the share of recycled materials. The average European buys almost 26 kilograms of textiles a year and discards around 11 kilograms. For brands this means one thing: green communication is becoming a document they have to answer for, not a slogan on a poster.