The Council of Ministers has recently approved a legislative decree transposing EU Directive 2024/825 on “empowering consumers for the green transition,” thereby taking a firm stance against greenwashing. The directive must be mandatorily implemented by March 2026.
The measure, proposed by the Minister for European Affairs, the NRRP and Cohesion Policies, Tommaso Foti, together with the Minister for Enterprises and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, is set to profoundly change the way companies communicate the sustainability of their products and services. Environmental claims such as “green,” “carbon neutral,” or “eco-friendly” will no longer be permitted unless they are supported by concrete and verifiable evidence, scientific proof, or recognized certifications. This decree represents a decisive step for Italy in combating greenwashing.
Greenwashing (an English neologism generally translated as superficial or “facade” environmentalism) refers to the communication strategy adopted by certain companies, organizations, or political institutions aimed at building a misleadingly positive image of their environmental impact, in order to divert public attention from the negative environmental effects of their activities or products.
In other words, greenwashing consists of communicating misleading information related to environmental sustainability, lacking scientific and methodological validation, with the aim of claiming an alleged benefit for the environment—and beyond—that may mislead consumers.
Greenwashing falls under unfair commercial practices as defined by the Italian Consumer Code and is recognized and prosecuted by the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM – Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato) as a genuine unfair commercial practice.
To ensure fair competition and competitiveness among companies, information plays a central role in combating both misleading advertising and its dissemination. The problem lies in the fact that the term sustainability is often used by companies merely as a marketing strategy, without any real substantive basis. To prevent abuse of consumer trust, information must be provided in a correct, transparent, and verifiable manner.
In the market for so-called “green” products, poorly informed consumers often struggle to identify which products truly have an objectively measured environmental impact, for example through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, which evaluates the environmental impact of a product throughout its entire life cycle.
There are 456 recognized eco-labels worldwide. This significantly complicates consumers’ ability to identify a product that is environmentally or ecologically sustainable and to understand the differences between one label and another. First of all, it is important to remember that when we talk about “green”, we are referring exclusively to environmental sustainability—that is, to products or services that have a lower environmental impact compared to a predefined reference level (benchmark), or that can generally demonstrate the adoption of specific measures to reduce their impact, such as products made entirely from 100% recycled materials.
When defining a benchmark or reference level, there are at least two possible approaches:
As this brief overview of just two alternatives shows, navigating among the various types of eco-labels is far from easy. For this reason, it is increasingly important at the very least to prevent false or misleading green claims and assertions.
The Italian decree introduces a key principle: the prohibition of unfair practices in all circumstances, without the need to demonstrate actual harm to consumers or competitors. This marks a shift from a case-by-case approach to an absolute ban, aimed at definitively combating unfair commercial practices through targeted measures and at providing consumers with clear, reliable, and transparent information on the environmental and social characteristics of products. By including social aspects, the directive embraces all dimensions of sustainability. The objective is to ensure that companies provide environmental and social information that is clear, truthful, and verifiable, enabling consumers to make more informed choices.
In Recital 1, the directive states that proper environmental information is essential to ensure the functioning of the internal market and to allow consumers to make informed decisions. For this reason, it identifies four priority categories of unfair practices:
As mentioned earlier, Recital 3 also broadens the definition of a product’s main characteristics, extending it beyond environmental aspects to include social and circularity-related characteristics, such as working conditions, welfare, occupational safety, social dialogue, inclusion, gender equality, and animal welfare.
This measure will strengthen tools already in force in Italy that aim to combat misleading advertising such as Directive 2005/29 on unfair commercial practices and Directive 2011/83 on consumer rights by introducing specific obligations and mandatory checks for companies for the first time. This directive, together with the “Green Claims Directive”, currently on hold following the stalemate recorded last June, would constitute a comprehensive regulatory framework for all EU Member States, based on mandatory minimum criteria, clear definitions of environmental claims, and uniform rules.
With this decree, Minister Urso seeks to affirm the Government’s commitment to protecting genuinely sustainable Made in Italy products. On the one hand, it aims to safeguard companies that adopt concrete and verifiable sustainability practices, enhancing the competitiveness of Made in Italy products on the market; on the other, it seeks to combat misleading advertising, a widespread issue in Italy as well. Responsible environmental communication is essential to stand out from the competition. Today’s market is far more attentive than in the past to credibility and transparency and requires companies to provide proof of their commitment through certifications and robust scientific evidence supporting their environmental claims.
Therefore, companies are called upon to integrate sustainability not merely as a matter of compliance, but as a means to strengthen their competitiveness. Transparency becomes a key distinguishing feature, rewarding those who invest in robust methodologies to substantiate their commitments and penalizing those who use sustainability incorrectly or ambiguously in their communications.
Dr. Maria Antonella Cigno
Collaboration with:
