If your website contains phrases like "we are eco-sustainable", "we produce in a green way" or "carbon neutral", from 27 September 2026 these statements will have to be backed by verifiable evidence — otherwise they become misleading commercial practices, sanctionable by the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM).
Necessary clarity: two distinct directives, often confused
Online you will find many articles that generically refer to the "Green Claims Directive" as if it were a single rule. In reality, these are two different EU directives, at very different stages of progress.
1. Empowering Consumers Directive (EU 2024/825) — in force
- Adopted by the EU Council and Parliament on 28 February 2024
- Published in the EU Official Journal on 6 March 2024
- Transposed in Italy via Legislative Decree no. 30 of 20 February 2026, published in the Italian Official Gazette on 9 March 2026
- Effective application from 27 September 2026
- Amends the UCPD Directive 2005/29/EC on unfair commercial practices
2. "Green Claims Directive" proposal (COM/2023/166) — suspended
- Proposed by the European Commission in March 2023
- Would have introduced more granular rules on independent ex-ante verification of claims
- Legislative process suspended by the European Parliament in June 2025
- The Commission is working on a reformulated version, expected indicatively in 2026-2028
- Not yet law and its final form is still undefined
So: when discussing concrete and operational obligations in the near term, the reference is the 2024/825 (Empowering Consumers), not the suspended proposal.
What Directive 2024/825 prohibits
The new rules, integrated into the Italian Consumer Code, classify the following as misleading commercial practices:
- Generic environmental claims like "eco-friendly", "green", "environmentally respectful", "sustainable" without specifying what they refer to and on what basis
- Statements of "climate neutrality" or "carbon neutral" based solely on emission offsets
- Use of sustainability labels not based on official certification schemes or recognised by public authorities
- Promoting an environmental feature as a distinguishing element when it is actually already mandatory by law for all products in that category
- Undisclosed planned obsolescence practices
Penalties: who enforces and what you risk
In Italy, enforcement is entrusted to the AGCM (Italian Competition Authority), which already applies the Consumer Code. Penalties for misleading commercial practices reach up to €10 million, and the EU framework requires Member States to ensure "effective, proportionate and dissuasive" sanctions, proportionate to turnover for the most serious cross-border violations.
Reputational damages add to this: an AGCM notice or a greenwashing ruling is public and indexed online.
Practical examples: risky vs safe claims
| ❌ Risky (vague, unverifiable) | ✓ Safe (specific, documented) |
|---|---|
| "Sustainable company" | "B Corp certified since 2022 — score 95/200" |
| "Eco packaging" | "Packaging 100% FSC-certified recycled paper" |
| "We are carbon neutral" | "Scope 1+2 emissions cut by 60% since 2019, residuals offset via VCS-verified projects" |
| "We respect the planet" | "Hosting on data centre 100% powered by renewables, verified by Green Web Foundation" |
| "Green production" | "Production site ISO 14001:2015 certified since 2021" |
How to comply — operational checklist
- Content audit: extract all environmental claims on the site (homepage, product pages, blog, footer, downloadable PDFs)
- Categorisation: classify each claim as generic (risky) or specific (potentially safe)
- Evidence collection: for each specific claim, gather supporting evidence — certifications, measurement data, third-party reports, independent audits
- Reformulate or remove: any claim without evidence must be reformulated (made specific and verifiable) or removed
- Accessible documentation: make evidence easy to find (e.g. "Our certifications" page, links to reports in articles)
- Editorial process: define a compliance check before publishing new content — writers must know how to formulate a verifiable claim
- Third-party certifications: consider pathways like B Corp, ISO 14001, EMAS, Green Web Foundation to anchor credibility with independent sources
The Yoto case: how we handle environmental claims on our own site
Yoto Digital Agency itself is an example of how environmental claims can be communicated compliantly: every sustainability statement is anchored to publicly verifiable evidence.
- "Low CO₂ impact website" → verified by Website Carbon Calculator with A+ rating
- "Green hosting" → verified by Green Web Foundation
- "Among the cleanest sites in the world" → quantified (top 1% globally for CO₂/visit)
No generic claims, every statement measured and linked to its source. This is the model required by 2024/825.
What to do now
The 27 September 2026 deadline is not far, and preparing takes time: a full audit, possible certifications, coordinated content rewriting. Starting now, six months early, means reaching the deadline with the site already compliant and zero risk.
If you want an environmental claims audit for your site and a roadmap to align with the Empowering Consumers Directive, request our free analysis: you will get an immediate report with the risky claims detected and the priority actions.