Empowering consumers for the green transition - Provisional Agreement
We have an update for you: There has been new development in the EU concerning marketing practices.
The EU Parliament and Council have reached a provisional agreement on new rules to ban misleading marketing and give consumers better information on product durability and repairability.
A provisional agreement is still informal and does not mean that the directive has been adopted.
But it is an important step towards it, and it gives us more certainty about the content.
The new directive, which actually is an amendment of two existing directives, is meant to combat misleading marketing, greenwashing, and false product durability claims.
The objective of the new and updated rules is to protect consumers from unfair practices and help them make more informed choices.
What will be banned?
Well, we can give you a few examples.
The EU Parliament and Council has agreed to ban several problematic marketing practices, such as:
The use of stand-alone environmental claims, such as “environmentally friendly”, “natural”, or “eco”, without proof of recognised excellent environmental performance on the specific claim.
Claims stating that a product has a neutral, reduced, or positive impact on the environment, based on emission offset schemes.
Presenting products as repairable when they are not.
Sustainability labels not based on approved certification schemes or established by public authorities.
With the new and updated rules, consumers are given the right information that allows them to make informed choices when they decide to purchase new products.
Besides the practices marked above, most of the regulation is already law under the Danish Marketing Practices Act (Markedsføringsloven), as well as the UK Consumer Protection Law.
Guarantee Information
One of the important aspects of the agreement was to make guarantee-information more visible.
All products in the EU come with at least a two-year guarantee - but this is not known by all EU citizens.
In fact, 60% of European consumers are not even aware that there is a legal guarantee with all products bought in the EU.
Therefore, the deal sets out to create a new extended guarantee label that clearly shows which products last longer, so consumers can purchase more durable products in the future.
When will this affect you?
Well, for now it is only a provisional agreement.
This means that in order to become law, the provisional agreement needs the final votes from the Parliament and Council, which is expected to take place in November, 2023.
When/if the directive is voted into force, the member states will then have 24 months to comply with the new legislation.
We will of course keep you updated in November, if the provisional agreement is voted into force.
Are you worried about the new rules and how they may affect your marketing practices?
We can help you with the Do’s and Don'ts within marketing and communication - if you are interested in hearing more, please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.