Sustainability claims and greenwashing risk: substantiation, scope and the consumer rules

A sustainability claim is a statement, in text, image or symbol, that a product or a trader has a positive impact, no impact, or a lower impact than other products or traders, or has improved its impact over time. Greenwashing is the use of such a claim without substantiation, with a misleading scope, or in a form that misleads a consumer about the environmental characteristics of the product. The risk for battery records and for commercial material that quotes passport figures is that a precise, verified declaration is turned into a vague, unsubstantiated claim by dropping the scope, the method and the date.

The claim then looks stronger than the evidence, and the consumer protection rules treat the stronger claim as the claim that must be substantiated. Substantiation discipline is therefore a record discipline as well as a marketing discipline.

What do the consumer rules require from 27 September 2026?

Directive (EU) 2024/825, empowering consumers for the green transition, amends the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and applies from 27 September 2026. It adds practices that are in all circumstances considered unfair, including the use of general environmental claims such as environmentally friendly, green, natural, biodegradable, climate neutral or eco, without demonstrated excellent environmental performance, environmental claims about an entire product or company where the claim relates only to a specific aspect, and claims of neutral, reduced or positive greenhouse gas impact based on offsetting. It also treats environmental claims about future performance as misleading without clear, objective, publicly available and verifiable commitments in a detailed implementation plan, verified by an independent expert. The Directive is a directive, transposed by Member States, and the precise application depends on national transposition and enforcement. A battery claim made to consumers in the Union must be assessed against the Directive as transposed, not against a general impression of what counts as green.

What happened to the Green Claims Directive proposal?

The Commission proposed a Green Claims Directive in March 2023, which would have required explicit environmental claims to be substantiated by scientific evidence, verified by an accredited verifier before use, and communicated in a standardised form. The proposal was withdrawn in June 2025, after the legislative process stalled, as reported in the sources consulted for this guide. Withdrawal does not remove the greenwashing risk, because Directive (EU) 2024/825 applies, because the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive already prohibits misleading claims, and because sector rules, including the Battery Regulation declarations, set the evidence standard for carbon and recycled content claims. A record or listing that relies on the withdrawal of the Green Claims proposal as a reason to make unsubstantiated claims misreads the legal position. The substantiation expectation remains, through the consumer rules that are in force.

How is a claim substantiated?

A claim is substantiated by scientific evidence, using a recognised method, covering the scope of the claim, with the evidence available for inspection and, where the rules require it, verified independently before the claim is made. For a carbon claim, substantiation means the Article 7 declaration, the method, the scope and the verification position. For a recycled content claim, substantiation means the Article 8 documentation, the calculation method and the verification position. For a durability claim, substantiation means the performance test results and the conditions. For a future performance claim, substantiation means a detailed, realistic implementation plan, with verifiable commitments and independent verification. A claim that is substantiated for one scope, such as one material, one plant or one life cycle stage, does not substantiate a broader claim, such as the whole battery, the whole company, or the whole life cycle. Scope is part of substantiation, not an addition to it.

What claim forms carry the highest risk?

General claims carry the highest risk: sustainable, green, eco friendly, climate neutral, fully recyclable, and similar terms without a stated scope and without excellent environmental performance demonstrated. Comparative claims carry the next highest risk: greener than, lower carbon than, more sustainable than, without matched evidence for both products. Future claims carry a distinct risk: carbon neutral by a stated year, net zero, or a future recycled content target, without a verifiable plan. Symbol claims carry a risk that is often overlooked: a leaf, a globe or a recycling symbol used to imply sustainability, without a claim in words, can mislead in the same way as a word claim. The table below summarises the risk by form.

How are claims checked in practice by a reader?

A reader checks a claim by asking four questions in order. What exactly is claimed, in words, and what scope does the claim cover. What evidence is cited, and does the evidence cover that scope. Was the evidence verified independently, and when. Is the claim presented with the scope, method and date that the evidence supports, or has the claim dropped those qualifiers. A claim that fails any of the four questions is not substantiated on the evidence shown, however plausible it sounds. The check should be recorded with the claim quoted exactly, the evidence inspected, and the result stated, so that a later reader can repeat the check. Claims checking is a reading discipline, and it applies to listings, brochures and record entries alike, because the same figure can support a sound claim in one presentation and an unsound claim in another.

What should a passport record do about claims?

A passport record should contain declarations and figures, not marketing claims. The record should state the carbon figure with scope and method, the recycled shares with method, and the performance values with conditions, and should leave comparative and general claims out of the record entry. Commercial material that quotes the record should quote the figure with its scope, method and date, and should not add a general or comparative adjective without separate substantiation. Separation between record and claim protects both: the record stays checkable, and the claim, where made, can be substantiated on its own terms. This guide gives general educational information only and does not give legal advice for a particular claim, product or market.