Quelle: picture alliance/dpa
According to a study, more than half of the information about the climate friendliness of goods was misleading in 2020. The EU wants to end this greenwashing. According to the consumer advice center, customers have been misled with claims for too long.
GAccording to consumer advocates, planned rules on green advertising promises should apply to all products. The EU Commission wants to present a law against so-called greenwashing this Wednesday. This should enable consumers, for example, to better recognize whether a product that is marketed in a climate-friendly manner is actually less harmful to the climate and the environment or not.
“It is important that the rules apply to all product groups – from baby food to washing lotion. Consumer and environmental protection must be taken seriously by all manufacturers, ”said the head of the Federal Association of Consumers (vzbv), Ramona Pop, the German Press Agency (dpa).
It’s good that the EU Commission finally wants to put a stop to greenwashing, said Pop. For far too long consumers have been misled by claims on packaging about allegedly environmentally friendly products. “The European set of rules must now be decided quickly before the European elections and then implemented in all member states,” she said.
According to the Commission, the new rules should give customers reliable information about the sustainability of products. This is not about mandatory information, but about voluntary statements by companies about products and organizations. According to a study by the consumer center from 2020, more than half of the information about the climate friendliness of goods was vague, misleading or unfounded. At the same time, the rules should also benefit companies that can genuinely substantiate their claims.
The Vice-President of the Association of Municipal Enterprises, Patrick Hasenkamp, said that it should not be “that companies gain a competitive advantage by deceiving consumers about the supposedly positive environmental properties of their products.” It is therefore welcome if manufacturer information is uniform and EU-wide should be done transparently.
Delara Burkhardt, environmental policy spokeswoman for the European SPD, said many people in Germany are willing to shop more sustainably. “But at the moment they can’t understand what’s really behind labels like ‘recycled’ or ‘environmentally friendly’. Here, the EU Commission must introduce understandable and verifiable environmental labels that are uniform throughout Europe.”