Empowering consumers through the EU’s Green Transition Directive

The question

What are the enhanced consumers rights arising from the EU’s Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (the Empowering Consumers Directive)?

The key takeaway

The Empowering Consumers Directive has strengthened consumers’ rights by amending the Consumer Rights Directive and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. Businesses should be aware that they now have a legal responsibility to provide clear, relevant, and reliable information so that consumers are empowered to make more sustainable consumption choices. 

The background

The EU, as part of its “European Green Deal”, set itself the target of reaching climate-neutrality by 2050. One hurdle in reaching this goal is consumer spending on less sustainable goods. Against this backdrop, recent directives, including the Empowering Consumers Directive and proposed Green Claims Directive (see here for our previous discussion on this topic), are designed to help tackle practices that prevent consumers from making informed sustainable choices. 

The development

The Empowering Consumers Directive amends two existing EU Directives, the Consumer Rights Directive (CRD) and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD).

As a result of the Empowering Consumers Directive, additional banned commercial practices have been added to the list of those already prohibited under the existing Directives, for example:

• displaying a sustainability label that is not established by a public authority or is not based on a certification scheme
• making an environmental claim that is unsubstantiated or not based on a product’s entire life cycle
• not informing consumers about a feature of a product designed to limit its durability, or claiming that its durability is limited when it is not, and
• inducing consumers into replacing goods earlier than technically necessary.

These banned practices are automatically deemed to be unfair to consumers.

More specifically:

• UCPD: The UCPD has also been amended to add two additional practices considered to be misleading if they are likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision they would not otherwise have taken. These are: (i) the advertising of benefits to consumers that are considered common practice in that market; and (ii) making an environmental claim without “clear, objective, publicly available and verifiable commitments”, regularly verified by an independent third-party expert
• CRD: Amendments to the CRD include requirements around providing additional pre-contractual information to consumers, such as: how long the producer commits to provide software updates for digital goods; and the existence and length of a producer’s commercial guarantee of durability where this lasts for more than two years and covers the whole good (and, for energy-using products, the fact that no information on the commercial guarantee of durability has been made available to consumers, if that is the case).

The Empowering Consumers Directive entered into force on 26 March 2024. EU Member States will need to apply its measures from 27 September 2026. 

Why is this important?

This development demonstrates the EU’s continued commitment to its targets under the European Green Deal. As the EU’s goal is to reach climate-neutrality by 2050, businesses can expect to see an increased focus – and action – by the EU on improving consumers’ ability to make informed sustainable choices. 

Any practical tips?

Whilst there is still some time until Member States must apply the Empowering Consumers Directive’s measures (from 27 September 2026), businesses should:

• begin reviewing their internal processes for making environmental claims and for sustainability labelling; and
• consider whether the pre-contractual information provided to consumers could be considered unfair or misleading, in line with the requirements set out above.

Summer 2024