EU Proposal for a Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition
Governmental Agency: European Commission
Jurisdiction: European Union
Ref no: 2022/0092(COD)
Status: ADOPTED
On 30 March 2022, the Commission submitted a proposal for a Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition, as part of the circular economy package. It proposes to amend the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and the Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU, with the goal of:
- Enabling consumers to take informed purchasing decisions and therefore contribute to more sustainable consumption
- Targeting commercial practices that mislead consumers away from sustainable consumption choices
- Ensuring a better and more consistent application of EU consumer rules
Particular areas to be targeted include greenwashing, premature failures of goods, and use of unreliable and non-transparent sustainability labels and information tools.
Some key requirements from the proposal relevant to textiles include:
- Providing additional product information in support of more sustaiable choices e.g. durability, repairability, upgradability
- Bans uncertified sustainability labels
- Bans on generic environmental claims where they cant be substantiated, as well as claims made about a whole product when the claim in reality only relates to a component.
As part of the provisional agreement reached on September 2023 between the EU Commission, Parliament and Council, it was agreed in particular to ban generic environmental claims, and sustainability labels not based on approved certification schemes or established by public authorities. They also agreed to improve visibility of guarantee information, and the introduction of a new guarantee extension label.
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The main impact of this proposed legislation will be in relation to brands & retailers placing textile items on the market. They will be required to:
- Ensure necessary product information is provided to consumers to support more sustainable consumption.
- Put in place suitable systems to evidence any environmental claims, as well as stop the usage of any uncertified labels.
This may result in additional cost to ensure that the necessary information is provided and is accurate, however, it may represent an advantage for brands making genuine sustainable products
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On February 20, 2024, the new Directive reached the last step in the decision-making procedure with final approval of the European Parliament's position by the European Council. The Directive was published in the Official Journal on March 6, 2024, and will enter into force on March 26, 2024. Member States now have 24 months to implement the new rules into their national law.
