knowledge 17 September 2026 |

Sustainability Claims: Time to Come Clean

What Has Changed – A Recap

The European Union (Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition) Regulations 2026 (SI No. 124 of 2026) (the “Regulations”) introduce changes across three areas: misleading commercial practices, prohibited (or "blacklisted") commercial practices, and pre-contractual consumer information.

Misleading commercial practices. The Regulations broaden the list of misleading practices in the Consumer Protection Act 2007 (the “2007 Act”) to include:

• providing false or misleading information about a product’s environmental or social characteristics or circularity aspects (durability, reparability or recyclability);
• environmental claims relating to future environmental performance (e.g. carbon neutrality by a specified date) without a clear, objective, publicly available and verifiable commitment set out in a detailed and realistic implementation plan that includes measurable and time-bound targets and which is regularly verified by an independent third-party expert; and
• advertising benefits to consumers that are irrelevant and that do not result from any product or business feature.

Prohibited commercial practices. The Regulations expand the list of practices that are automatically prohibited or “blacklisted” under the 2007 Act. Additions include:

• displaying a sustainability label not based on a certification scheme or not established by a public body;
• making a generic environmental claim (e.g. "eco-friendly", “100% recyclable” or "green") without being able to demonstrate recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to that claim;
• making an environmental claim about an entire product or business when it relates only to one aspect;
• claiming a product has a neutral, reduced or positive environmental impact based on greenhouse gas offsetting;
• presenting category-wide legal requirements as a distinctive feature of the trader's offer;
• certain durability and reparability practices, including:
  • withholding from consumers that a software update will negatively affect the functioning of goods with digital elements or the use of digital content or digital services;
  • presenting a software update as necessary when it only enhances functionality features;
  • falsely claiming that, under normal conditions of use, a good has a certain durability in terms of usage time or intensity;
  • presenting a good as repairable when it is not; and
  • inducing the consumer to replace or replenish the consumables of a product earlier than is necessary for technical reasons.

Consumer information requirements. The Regulations also amend the Consumer Rights Act 2022. Traders must display a harmonised EU notice on the legal guarantee of conformity at all points of sale (online and offline) and, where applicable, a harmonised EU label for commercial guarantees of durability exceeding two years. New pre-contractual requirements cover software update availability for goods with digital elements, reparability scores (where established at EU level), and the availability of spare parts and repair instructions. Contravention of these requirements is now a prohibited commercial practice under the 2007 Act.

CCPC Activity

Greenwashing and environmental claims are firmly on the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission’s (the “CCPC”) radar and businesses should take note of the CCPC’s recent enforcement signals and guidance in this area. The CCPC has already been active in promoting the new rules, publishing its guidance document, "Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition: Guidance for Businesses" (the “CCPC Guidance”) in May this year.

In addition, in April 2025, the CCPC joined 19 other consumer authorities in an ICPEN open letter to the fashion retail sector on environmental claims, warning against self-made labelling schemes and third-party certification misuse.

Practical Challenges

Building on “Our 3 Key Takeaways” for businesses outlined in our previous briefing, businesses are likely to face three main issues in the early stages of applying the new rules.

• Old stock. The Consumer Protection Cooperation Network published its June 2026 common understanding on old stock situations, linked in the CCPC Guidance. The document indicates that national authorities may take a phased, compliance-oriented approach where traders demonstrate genuine transitional difficulties and reasonable good-faith efforts to comply for products already in the distribution chain. It does not, however, exempt traders from the new rules, and it notes that online claims are likely to face earlier scrutiny than physical packaging. Where existing products bear non-compliant sustainability labels or environmental claims, traders should consider the practical ways in which they can ensure compliance with the Regulations, e.g. by covering or correcting claims by stickers or adding supplementary information at the point of sale.
• Certification gaps. Many businesses use third-party sustainability labels in good faith without verifying whether the certification scheme meets the Regulations’ new detailed requirements. Any unverified sustainability label will need to be removed. 
• Generic and offsetting claims. Businesses relying on broad environmental messaging (e.g. "eco-friendly" or "sustainable") or carbon offsetting for environmental neutrality claims now face express prohibitions of those practices. The shift from general principle to specific prohibition means that marketing copy and product descriptions that may previously have gone unchallenged will need to be reviewed and, in many cases, withdrawn or reworked.

How can McCann FitzGerald LLP help?

For further information on any of the matters discussed in this briefing, please contact any of the key contacts below or your usual contact at McCann FitzGerald LLP.