Since 27 September 2026, the EU's Empowering Consumers Directive bans generic environmental claims across the EU - no grace period:
- "Eco-friendly", "green", "climate neutral", "sustainable" and similar generic terms are blacklisted unless you can prove recognised excellent environmental performance.
- Claims based on carbon offsetting ("CO2 neutral product") are banned outright.
- Self-made eco labels and badges are banned unless they come from an approved certification scheme.
If you sell to EU customers, your landing page, checkout, packaging and ads all count. Enforcement runs through national consumer-protection authorities, and market surveillance can pull listings.
The 20-minute sweep
- Search your site, emails, ads and packaging for every green word and badge.
- For each claim: can you prove it with recognised certification or top-tier performance data? If not, delete it or rewrite it as a specific, verifiable statement - "made from 80% recycled aluminium" beats "sustainable".
- Remove offsetting-based product claims entirely - they cannot be fixed by wording.
- Screenshot what you changed and when, so you can show good faith if asked.
We turned the banned-claim list into a $29 audit pack (claim-by-claim checker, rewrite examples, evidence file). There is a free claim checker on the page if you want to test your own wording first: https://shuttlewright-gc-pack.pillar-3a8.workers.dev/
Templates, not legal advice.
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