For two years, the Green Claims Directive was the EU law every sustainability and marketing team was preparing for. It would have required companies to prove their environmental claims, and have them checked by an independent verifier, before using them in any communication. Then, in June 2025, negotiations stopped.
That leaves many companies with an out-of-date picture. Some still expect the Green Claims Directive to arrive; others assume that its collapse means the rules on green claims were relaxed. Neither is right. The rules that apply today come from a different directive, EmpCo, and they are already in force.
This summary covers what the Green Claims Directive proposed, where it stands in October 2026, and what applies to your environmental and carbon credit claims instead.
The short answer. The Green Claims Directive is stalled and not in force. The Commission announced its intention to withdraw it in June 2025, but it is formally still pending. The binding EU rules on green claims come from EmpCo, which applies from 27 September 2026.
What the Green Claims Directive proposed
The Commission published the proposal on 22 March 2023. It aimed to stop misleading environmental claims by setting minimum requirements for how companies back them up. According to the European Parliament’s summary of the file, the proposal would have required:
Substantiation. Explicit environmental claims had to rely on recognised scientific evidence and state-of-the-art technical knowledge, and show their significance from a life-cycle perspective.
Verification before publication. Claims and labelling schemes would be checked ex ante by an officially accredited independent body.
Control of labels. New private labelling schemes would be validated by national authorities.
Transparency on offsets. Claims involving greenhouse gas offsets would have to report them transparently.
Lighter rules for small companies. Micro-enterprises would be exempt from some requirements.
The European Parliament’s position of March 2024 went further on penalties, with fines of at least 4% of annual turnover, and stated that claims based solely on carbon offsetting would remain banned.
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Where the Green Claims Directive stands in 2026
Date | Step |
|---|---|
22 March 2023 | Commission publishes the proposal |
12 March 2024 | European Parliament adopts its first-reading position (467 in favour) |
17 June 2024 | Council adopts its general approach |
28 January and 24 April 2025 | First and second trilogue negotiations |
20 June 2025 | Commission announces its intention to withdraw the proposal; the third trilogue, planned for 23 June, is cancelled |
21 October 2025 | Commission’s 2026 work programme still lists the proposal as pending |
October 2026 | No formal withdrawal; the European Parliament lists the file as blocked |
The Commission’s announcement followed concerns in the Parliament and among member states about the scope and burden of the rules, in particular for micro-enterprises. A formal withdrawal needs a decision by the College of Commissioners, which had not been taken by October 2026. For practical purposes, no one should plan on the Green Claims Directive arriving in its 2023 form.
What applies to green claims instead: EmpCo
While the Green Claims Directive stalled, a related directive went through. The Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive, known as EmpCo or the ECGT Directive (Directive (EU) 2024/825), was adopted in February 2024 and applies across the EU from 27 September 2026. In the Netherlands it is part of Book 6 of the Civil Code, enforced by the ACM.
EmpCo amends the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. Among other things, it:
bans generic environmental claims such as “eco-friendly” or “climate neutral” unless the company can demonstrate recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to the claim;
bans claims that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive impact on greenhouse gas emissions because of offsetting;
bans sustainability labels that are not based on a certification scheme or established by public authorities;
requires claims about future performance, such as “net zero by 2040”, to be backed by a detailed, realistic and publicly available implementation plan that is regularly verified by an independent expert.
EmpCo does not introduce the pre-approval of claims that the Green Claims Directive proposed. Claims are still assessed after the fact, by regulators and courts, under consumer law. That makes a company’s own substantiation more important, since no verifier signs off in advance.
What this means for carbon credit claims
For companies that buy carbon credits, the practical change is clear: claims that a product or service is “carbon neutral”, “CO2 compensated” or “climate positive” because of credits are banned towards consumers since 27 September 2026, and generic company-wide neutrality claims are prohibited too. Our guide to carbon neutral claims under EmpCo explains the rules claim by claim.
What remains possible is the contribution claim: stating, specifically and transparently, which verified climate projects you finance, without claiming that your emissions are cancelled. Our guide to contribution claims gives wording for each channel.
The substance the Green Claims Directive asked for still makes sense as practice: base claims on evidence, keep your own reductions separate from the credits you finance, name the projects and standards, and be able to show the registry retirements. Every project Regreener offers goes through our 100+ datapoint quality framework for the same reason.
When the Green Claims Directive stalled, some companies read it as a reprieve. It wasn’t one. EmpCo arrived on schedule and is stricter on carbon credits than most people expected. The companies in the best position are the ones that kept substantiating their claims as if a verifier would check them.
Bernard de Wit
Founder, Regreener
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Could the Green Claims Directive come back?
Formally, the proposal is still on the table, so the Commission could withdraw it, revise it or let negotiations resume. Any new version would need to go through the Parliament and the Council again, which takes years. In the meantime, EmpCo is the law, and national regulators such as the ACM enforce it.
Check your claims against today’s rules
Regreener’s free EmpCo Claim Checker tests claims about carbon credits against the rules that apply now: answer three questions per claim and get the outcome, the legal source and wording you can use instead. Check your claims against the EmpCo rules, or talk to a Climate Strategist about the credits behind your claims.
