We repeat our supplier's environmental claims

Environmental claims are regulated as commercial practices. The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Directive 2005/29/EC, covers any act, omission, representation or commercial communication, including advertising and marketing, by a trader that is directly connected with the promotion, sale or supply of a product to consumers (Article 2(d)). A trader is any person acting for purposes relating to its business, and anyone acting in its name or on its behalf (Article 2(b)). An environmental claim is any voluntary message or representation, in text, image, symbol, label or name, that states or implies a positive or reduced environmental impact (Article 2(o)).^[1]

None of these definitions depends on who first wrote the claim. When an importer, distributor or webshop copies a supplier's description into its own product page, the claim reaches consumers as part of that seller's commercial practice. A practice is misleading if it contains false information or deceives the average consumer, even through its overall presentation, about main characteristics that now expressly include environmental characteristics and circularity aspects (Article 6(1)(b)).^[1]

Evidence decides the outcome when a claim is questioned. Courts and administrative authorities can require the trader to furnish evidence of the accuracy of factual claims and consider them inaccurate if the evidence is missing or insufficient (Article 12). A reseller that holds only the supplier's marketing text has nothing to furnish.^[1]

Directive (EU) 2024/825 added practices that are unfair in all circumstances, applied from 27 September 2026 (Article 4(1)). They include displaying a sustainability label that is not based on a certification scheme or established by public authorities (Annex I point 2a), generic environmental claims without recognised excellent environmental performance (point 4a), whole-product claims that concern only one aspect (point 4b), and presenting a requirement that applies by law to all products in the category as a distinctive feature, such as a supplier's 'free from' claim for a substance already banned (point 10a; recital 15). Recital 10 adds that claims such as 'sustainable', 'conscious' or 'responsible' cannot rest on recognised excellent environmental performance alone, because they also concern social characteristics. Recital 7 adds that, before displaying a sustainability label, the trader should check that the scheme meets minimum conditions of transparency and credibility.^[1][2]

Claims aimed only at business buyers fall under Directive 2006/114/EC, which protects traders against misleading advertising and gives courts the same power to require evidence of factual claims (Articles 1 and 7).^[3]