A Green Claims comparison for teams setting the EU proposal beside the UK , which applies existing consumer-protection law to environmental claims.
Use it to scope EU explicit environmental claims, substantiation, communication, labels, offsets, and verification, then see how the UK polices the same claims through consumer-protection enforcement.
For UK consumer marketing, apply the alongside Chapter 1 of Part 4 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. Those unfair-commercial-practices provisions have applied since 6 April 2025 and replaced the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 for later conduct. The EU Green Claims Directive was not adopted; its proposed ex-ante verification model is not an EU approval requirement.
Comparison matrix
Green Claims Directive vs UK Green Claims Code: side-by-side comparison
Compare the EU proposal’s substantiation and verification model with the UK Code’s guidance on consumer law, evidence, labels, climate wording, and enforcement.
An unadopted EU model for voluntary explicit environmental claims and labels: substantiation, communication, scheme governance and verification.
Second framework
UK Green Claims Code
The CMA's 2021 remains guidance for environmental claims. Since 6 April 2025, the underlying unfair-commercial-practices law is Chapter 1 of Part 4 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which replaced and updated the 2008 Regulations for later conduct.
Green Claims Directive vs UK Green Claims Code: side-by-side comparison
The EU proposal covers substantiation and communication of voluntary environmental claims in business-to-consumer commercial practices and is intended as a safety net where EU sector rules do not already regulate the claim, label, assessment, communication, or verification.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds the related EU consumer-law changes on generic environmental claims and sustainability labels that the Green Claims proposal is designed to complement.
empowering consumers for the green transition
The UK approach is guidance, not a standalone statute. The CMA (published 20 September 2021) helps businesses making environmental claims about goods and services stay on the right side of existing consumer-protection law; it applies to claims aimed at UK consumers across adverts, packaging, and web pages.
Competition and Markets Authority guidance (published 20 September 2021) on applying existing consumer law to environmental claims about goods and services.
How to stay on the right side of consumer law when making green claims about goods and services
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
Start each claim file with jurisdiction, audience, claim text, product or trader boundary, and whether EU sector-specific rules displace the Green Claims proposal.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
The EU item is a Commission proposal, COM(2023)166, under ordinary legislative procedure 2023/0085(COD). The cited source record shows Parliament adopted its first-reading position on 12 March 2024, Council approved a general approach on 17 June 2024, and the procedure was awaiting Council first-reading position in the captured OEIL file.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds legislative status: Parliament first-reading text adopted on 12 March 2024 and the procedure awaiting the Council first-reading position in the captured file.
Awaiting Council's 1st reading position
There is no separate UK Green Claims Act. The Code was issued under the earlier 2008 Regulations, but Chapter 1 of Part 4 of the DMCC Act now prohibits unfair commercial practices, including misleading actions and omissions. The 2008 Regulations continue only for acts or omissions before commencement.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
For conduct from 6 April 2025, cite the DMCC Act and current CMA unfair-commercial-practices guidance. Keep the 2008 Regulations only where the conduct predates commencement or historical context matters.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds legislative status: Parliament first-reading text adopted on 12 March 2024 and the procedure awaiting the Council first-reading position in the captured file.
EU substantiation is built around recognised scientific evidence, state-of-the-art technical knowledge, lifecycle-relevant impacts, significant aspects, legal-baseline checks, common-practice checks, trade-off analysis, and accurate primary or secondary information.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
Grounds Product Environmental Footprint and Organisation Environmental Footprint as EU-recommended life-cycle methods for quantifying environmental impacts.
Environmental Footprint methods to measure and communicate the life cycle environmental performance of products and organisations
The Code's six checks ask whether a claim is truthful and accurate; clear and unambiguous; free of omitted or hidden important information; based on fair and meaningful comparisons; supported across the product's full life cycle; and substantiated. The DMCC test also asks whether a misleading action or omission is likely to change the average consumer's transactional decision.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
For EU claims, the evidence pack should connect each public statement to methods, datasets, lifecycle boundaries, primary or secondary data quality, and any excluded impact with a written justification.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
The EU proposal requires communicated claims to cover only assessed and significant impacts, aspects, or performance. Where relevant, claims must explain consumer-use behaviour and provide substantiation information, such as covered product or trader, studies and calculations, standards, certificate, and verifier details.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
The Code is guidance, not a statutory disclosure form. Under the DMCC Act, a misleading action or omission can be unlawful when it is likely to cause the average consumer to take a different transactional decision; invitations to purchase also have specific material-information rules.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
Do not publish a short green claim without a matching consumer-facing explanation of what the claim covers, what evidence supports it, and where the verifier or certificate information can be found if required.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
EU evidence should be retained before publication and be available to substantiate factual claims. The proposal also includes trader review of environmental claims and Commission/member-state monitoring of claims and labelling schemes after adoption.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
Grounds legislative status: Parliament first-reading text adopted on 12 March 2024 and the procedure awaiting the Council first-reading position in the captured file.
Awaiting Council's 1st reading position
The Code expects businesses to hold evidence before making a claim, but it does not require a pre-publication certificate or filing. Keep the claim, qualifications, lifecycle boundary, comparison basis, evidence available at publication, and later changes so the business can respond to CMA, court, or other enforcer scrutiny.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
Maintain one claim register with jurisdiction-tagged entries: claim text, product or trader boundary, EU source, method, data owner, verifier or certificate, publication surface, date reviewed, and trigger for withdrawal or update.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
The EU proposal treats environmental labels as part of the green-claims problem. It targets label proliferation, requires transparency and credibility criteria for labelling schemes, subjects labels to verification, restricts new public schemes, and allows new private schemes only through a validation route showing added value.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
The UK Code addresses environmental labels and claims through the same misleading-practices lens, but it does not run an EU-style restriction-and-validation regime for labelling schemes. There is no UK pre-market label-approval step in the Code; a misleading label is challenged as a misleading commercial practice.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
Inventory every mark, badge, score, certification, and scheme owner before approving EU-facing green claims, especially where a label implies overall environmental preferability.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
The EU materials identify climate-related claims such as climate neutral, carbon neutral, compensated, and net-zero as high-risk. The proposal requires carbon credits or offsets to be treated separately from the trader or product greenhouse gas emissions and to disclose whether credits are reductions or removals, the scheme, registry, share of emissions addressed, and quality safeguards.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
general approach on the Green Claims Directive
The CMA can directly enforce consumer law under the DMCC Act. For a consumer-protection infringement it may impose a penalty up to GBP 300,000 or 10% of worldwide turnover, whichever is higher. A carbon-neutral or offset claim is assessed under the same misleading-practices framework; the Code does not create a separate UK offset certification route.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
For EU-facing climate claims, separate actual lifecycle impact and value-chain reductions from credits or financial contributions, then avoid wording that makes offsetting look like the product itself has no impact.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Use the EU Green Claims proposal track when an EU business-to-consumer explicit environmental claim or environmental label is voluntary, not already governed by a specific EU sector rule, and needs substantiation, communication, label, offset, or verification analysis.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
The UK is an official source comparator: it shares the EU goal of stopping misleading claims, but it works as guidance on existing consumer-protection law rather than as a new substantiation-and-verification statute, so EU substantiation conclusions still need a separate UK misleading-practices check.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
Approve cross-market wording only when the evidence for the EU and UK independently supports the same claim boundary, evidence, consumer-facing qualification, and review owner.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
The EU proposal includes ex-ante third-party verification by an officially accredited independent verifier before the claim is used, with a certificate of conformity recognised across the EU through the Internal Market Information System. Council text also frames verifier assessment as separate from national authority or court assessment under consumer law.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
general approach on the Green Claims Directive
The UK Code has no ex-ante third-party verifier or certificate-of-conformity requirement. A UK claim does not need pre-use certification; instead the business must be able to substantiate it and avoid misleading consumers, with the CMA enforcing after the fact under consumer-protection law and the DMCC Act 2024.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
For voluntary Green Claims proposal planning, record likely verifier inputs, independence, certificate scope, and review triggers. Current EU publication approval must instead apply adopted EU and national law; the proposal creates no present certification gate.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
general approach on the Green Claims Directive
Claim scope
EU Green Claims Directive proposal
The EU proposal covers substantiation and communication of voluntary environmental claims in business-to-consumer commercial practices and is intended as a safety net where EU sector rules do not already regulate the claim, label, assessment, communication, or verification.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds the related EU consumer-law changes on generic environmental claims and sustainability labels that the Green Claims proposal is designed to complement.
empowering consumers for the green transition
UK Green Claims Code
The UK approach is guidance, not a standalone statute. The CMA (published 20 September 2021) helps businesses making environmental claims about goods and services stay on the right side of existing consumer-protection law; it applies to claims aimed at UK consumers across adverts, packaging, and web pages.
Competition and Markets Authority guidance (published 20 September 2021) on applying existing consumer law to environmental claims about goods and services.
How to stay on the right side of consumer law when making green claims about goods and services
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
Operational implication
Start each claim file with jurisdiction, audience, claim text, product or trader boundary, and whether EU sector-specific rules displace the Green Claims proposal.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
general approach on the Green Claims Directive
Legal status
EU Green Claims Directive proposal
The EU item is a Commission proposal, COM(2023)166, under ordinary legislative procedure 2023/0085(COD). The cited source record shows Parliament adopted its first-reading position on 12 March 2024, Council approved a general approach on 17 June 2024, and the procedure was awaiting Council first-reading position in the captured OEIL file.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds legislative status: Parliament first-reading text adopted on 12 March 2024 and the procedure awaiting the Council first-reading position in the captured file.
Awaiting Council's 1st reading position
UK Green Claims Code
There is no separate UK Green Claims Act. The Code was issued under the earlier 2008 Regulations, but Chapter 1 of Part 4 of the DMCC Act now prohibits unfair commercial practices, including misleading actions and omissions. The 2008 Regulations continue only for acts or omissions before commencement.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
Operational implication
For conduct from 6 April 2025, cite the DMCC Act and current CMA unfair-commercial-practices guidance. Keep the 2008 Regulations only where the conduct predates commencement or historical context matters.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds legislative status: Parliament first-reading text adopted on 12 March 2024 and the procedure awaiting the Council first-reading position in the captured file.
Awaiting Council's 1st reading position
Evidence and life-cycle checks
EU Green Claims Directive proposal
EU substantiation is built around recognised scientific evidence, state-of-the-art technical knowledge, lifecycle-relevant impacts, significant aspects, legal-baseline checks, common-practice checks, trade-off analysis, and accurate primary or secondary information.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
Grounds Product Environmental Footprint and Organisation Environmental Footprint as EU-recommended life-cycle methods for quantifying environmental impacts.
Environmental Footprint methods to measure and communicate the life cycle environmental performance of products and organisations
UK Green Claims Code
The Code's six checks ask whether a claim is truthful and accurate; clear and unambiguous; free of omitted or hidden important information; based on fair and meaningful comparisons; supported across the product's full life cycle; and substantiated. The DMCC test also asks whether a misleading action or omission is likely to change the average consumer's transactional decision.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
Operational implication
For EU claims, the evidence pack should connect each public statement to methods, datasets, lifecycle boundaries, primary or secondary data quality, and any excluded impact with a written justification.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
Consumer-facing communication
EU Green Claims Directive proposal
The EU proposal requires communicated claims to cover only assessed and significant impacts, aspects, or performance. Where relevant, claims must explain consumer-use behaviour and provide substantiation information, such as covered product or trader, studies and calculations, standards, certificate, and verifier details.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
UK Green Claims Code
The Code is guidance, not a statutory disclosure form. Under the DMCC Act, a misleading action or omission can be unlawful when it is likely to cause the average consumer to take a different transactional decision; invitations to purchase also have specific material-information rules.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
Operational implication
Do not publish a short green claim without a matching consumer-facing explanation of what the claim covers, what evidence supports it, and where the verifier or certificate information can be found if required.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
Evidence retention
EU Green Claims Directive proposal
EU evidence should be retained before publication and be available to substantiate factual claims. The proposal also includes trader review of environmental claims and Commission/member-state monitoring of claims and labelling schemes after adoption.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
Grounds legislative status: Parliament first-reading text adopted on 12 March 2024 and the procedure awaiting the Council first-reading position in the captured file.
Awaiting Council's 1st reading position
UK Green Claims Code
The Code expects businesses to hold evidence before making a claim, but it does not require a pre-publication certificate or filing. Keep the claim, qualifications, lifecycle boundary, comparison basis, evidence available at publication, and later changes so the business can respond to CMA, court, or other enforcer scrutiny.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
Operational implication
Maintain one claim register with jurisdiction-tagged entries: claim text, product or trader boundary, EU source, method, data owner, verifier or certificate, publication surface, date reviewed, and trigger for withdrawal or update.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
Labels and schemes
EU Green Claims Directive proposal
The EU proposal treats environmental labels as part of the green-claims problem. It targets label proliferation, requires transparency and credibility criteria for labelling schemes, subjects labels to verification, restricts new public schemes, and allows new private schemes only through a validation route showing added value.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
UK Green Claims Code
The UK Code addresses environmental labels and claims through the same misleading-practices lens, but it does not run an EU-style restriction-and-validation regime for labelling schemes. There is no UK pre-market label-approval step in the Code; a misleading label is challenged as a misleading commercial practice.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
Operational implication
Inventory every mark, badge, score, certification, and scheme owner before approving EU-facing green claims, especially where a label implies overall environmental preferability.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
general approach on the Green Claims Directive
Climate claims and enforcement
EU Green Claims Directive proposal
The EU materials identify climate-related claims such as climate neutral, carbon neutral, compensated, and net-zero as high-risk. The proposal requires carbon credits or offsets to be treated separately from the trader or product greenhouse gas emissions and to disclose whether credits are reductions or removals, the scheme, registry, share of emissions addressed, and quality safeguards.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
general approach on the Green Claims Directive
UK Green Claims Code
The CMA can directly enforce consumer law under the DMCC Act. For a consumer-protection infringement it may impose a penalty up to GBP 300,000 or 10% of worldwide turnover, whichever is higher. A carbon-neutral or offset claim is assessed under the same misleading-practices framework; the Code does not create a separate UK offset certification route.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
Operational implication
For EU-facing climate claims, separate actual lifecycle impact and value-chain reductions from credits or financial contributions, then avoid wording that makes offsetting look like the product itself has no impact.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
general approach on the Green Claims Directive
Cross-market review
EU Green Claims Directive proposal
Use the EU Green Claims proposal track when an EU business-to-consumer explicit environmental claim or environmental label is voluntary, not already governed by a specific EU sector rule, and needs substantiation, communication, label, offset, or verification analysis.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
UK Green Claims Code
The UK is an official source comparator: it shares the EU goal of stopping misleading claims, but it works as guidance on existing consumer-protection law rather than as a new substantiation-and-verification statute, so EU substantiation conclusions still need a separate UK misleading-practices check.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
Operational implication
Approve cross-market wording only when the evidence for the EU and UK independently supports the same claim boundary, evidence, consumer-facing qualification, and review owner.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
Verification
EU Green Claims Directive proposal
The EU proposal includes ex-ante third-party verification by an officially accredited independent verifier before the claim is used, with a certificate of conformity recognised across the EU through the Internal Market Information System. Council text also frames verifier assessment as separate from national authority or court assessment under consumer law.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
general approach on the Green Claims Directive
UK Green Claims Code
The UK Code has no ex-ante third-party verifier or certificate-of-conformity requirement. A UK claim does not need pre-use certification; instead the business must be able to substantiate it and avoid misleading consumers, with the CMA enforcing after the fact under consumer-protection law and the DMCC Act 2024.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
Operational implication
For voluntary Green Claims proposal planning, record likely verifier inputs, independence, certificate scope, and review triggers. Current EU publication approval must instead apply adopted EU and national law; the proposal creates no present certification gate.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
general approach on the Green Claims Directive
Practical decision rule
How should teams review a claim used in the EU and UK?
Treat the EU Green Claims side as a proposal-stage, cited analysis of explicit environmental claims and environmental labels.
Treat the UK as guidance under the current DMCC Act unfair-commercial-practices framework, not as a pre-publication verification regime.
Reuse evidence across jurisdictions only after the evidence for both jurisdictions supports the same claim boundary, substantiation method, communication wording, and review trigger.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds legislative status: Parliament first-reading text adopted on 12 March 2024 and the procedure awaiting the Council first-reading position in the captured file.
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
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Section 1
What this comparison covers on each side
This comparison supports proposal-based EU Green Claims planning for explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, climate-related claims, offsets, verification, and evidence records. It also summarizes the UK under the DMCC Act framework that applies to commercial practices from 6 April 2025.
Use the UK column to see the structural contrast: the UK polices misleading green claims through existing consumer-protection law and CMA enforcement, rather than through the EU proposal's pre-publication substantiation and verification regime.
Use the EU side before approving voluntary B2C environmental claims or labels for EU audiences.
Run a separate UK misleading-practices check before reusing EU substantiation conclusions in UK-facing materials.
Treat the UK as guidance under the DMCC Act, not as a separate statute or a pre-publication verification regime.
Reassess a UK claim when its wording, product, service, supplier evidence, life-cycle boundary, comparator, target, offset, or CMA guidance changes; narrow or withdraw the claim if the evidence no longer supports the consumer takeaway.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds legislative status: Parliament first-reading text adopted on 12 March 2024 and the procedure awaiting the Council first-reading position in the captured file.
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
Grounds the Commission explanation for why the proposal targets vague, misleading, unfounded, and unsubstantiated green claims.
53.3% of the claims examined were vague, misleading or unfounded
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Section 2
Evidence pack for EU Green Claims review
A useful EU evidence pack starts with the exact claim text and consumer-facing surface, then maps the claim to product or trader boundary, significant lifecycle impacts, methods, data quality, trade-offs, common-practice baseline, and any offset or carbon-credit element.
For labels, keep separate records for the label owner, criteria, governance, complaint process, non-compliance handling, verifier, certificate, and whether the label uses an aggregated score that could obscure negative impacts.
Record whether the claim is covered by another EU sector rule before applying the Green Claims proposal as a safety-net regime.
Separate actual lifecycle performance from greenhouse gas offsets, removals, reductions, credits, registries, and financial contributions.
Keep consumer communication evidence with the published claim so the substantiation route is visible and reviewable.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence
Grounds Product Environmental Footprint and Organisation Environmental Footprint as EU-recommended life-cycle methods for quantifying environmental impacts.
Environmental Footprint methods to measure and communicate the life cycle environmental performance of products and organisations
Recommended next step
Turn Green Claims guidance into an evidence workflow
This Green Claims comparison helps separate proposal-stage EU substantiation and verification work from the UK Green Claims Code's consumer-protection approach before teams publish environmental claims, labels, or climate-related wording.
Competition and Markets Authority guidance (published 20 September 2021) on applying existing consumer-protection law to environmental claims about goods and services.
Competition and Markets Authority guidance (published 20 September 2021) on applying existing consumer law to environmental claims about goods and services.
CMA guidance setting out compliance principles, examples, and a checklist for substantiating environmental claims under existing consumer law.
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CMA guidance (published 20 September 2021) on applying existing consumer-protection law to environmental claims.
"How to stay on the right side of consumer law when making green claims about goods and services"
Historical law under which the 2021 Green Claims Code was issued. The DMCC Act replaced it for acts or omissions from 6 April 2025, while preserving it for earlier conduct.
The UK consumer-protection law the Green Claims Code interprets; it prohibits unfair commercial practices and misleading actions and omissions.
The UK consumer-protection law behind the Green Claims Code, prohibiting misleading actions and misleading omissions.
Current guidance confirming that the DMCC Act provisions apply from 6 April 2025, replace and update the 2008 Regulations, and govern misleading actions and omissions.
Current CMA guidance on the DMCC Act provisions that apply from 6 April 2025, including misleading actions, misleading omissions, transactional decisions, and the replacement of the 2008 Regulations.
Gives the CMA direct enforcement powers and the ability to impose monetary penalties for consumer-protection infringements, including misleading environmental claims.
Gives the CMA direct enforcement powers and the ability to impose monetary penalties for consumer-protection infringements.
Grounds EU consumer-law background for clear, accurate, verifiable environmental claims, lifecycle thinking, documentation, and public substantiation information.
"claims should be based on robust, independent, verifiable and generally recognised evidence"
Grounds Council negotiation text approved on 17 June 2024, including proposal status and changes on labels, explicit claims, climate claims, and verifier roles.
Grounds the related EU consumer-law changes on generic environmental claims and sustainability labels that the Green Claims proposal is designed to complement.
Grounds legislative status: Parliament first-reading text adopted on 12 March 2024 and the procedure awaiting the Council first-reading position in the captured file.
Grounds the proposed EU rules on voluntary explicit environmental claims, environmental labels, substantiation, communication, offsets, verification, and scope carve-outs.
"substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims"