Corrected on 16 October 2026: The statements on sustainability labels, the ban on offsetting claims, sanctions and transposition into national law were made more precise.
Updated on 25 October 2026: The time references to the EmpCo Directive, which has applied since 27 September 2026, were adjusted.
When Green Is Not Green: The Greenwashing Problem
“Climate neutral.” “Sustainably produced.” “Environmentally friendly.” Hardly any product today comes without an environmental promise. Yet behind these claims there is often less than consumers assume – and this is not an isolated case, but a systemic problem.
- 53% of environmental claims are vague or misleading
- 40% have no supporting evidence at all
- 230 sustainability labels in the EU
- 50% of environmental labels lack sufficient verification
Source: European Commission (2023)
The figures speak clearly: more than half of all environmental claims in the EU are vague, misleading or simply unsubstantiated. And while companies advertise with terms such as “green” or “CO2 neutral”, there is no binding definition of what these terms actually mean. The result: a competition in which genuine sustainability performance is systematically disadvantaged compared with empty promises.
Greenwashing harms more than consumer trust – it distorts markets, slows genuine ecological change and undermines the credibility of entire industries. This is exactly where the EU steps in.
Greenwashing is not a fringe phenomenon. It is a structural market failure that requires regulatory answers.
Clear Rules Instead of Empty Promises
With the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (EmpCo, also abbreviated ECGT, Directive (EU) 2024/825), the EU responds to exactly these shortcomings. The Directive is part of the European Green Deal and supplements existing unfair competition law with concrete requirements for environmental claims – effective through the national unfair competition laws, in Austria through the amendment to the Unfair Competition Act (UWG) (Federal Law Gazette I No. 58/2026), for B2C communication of all companies, including micro-enterprises.
The central goal: to better protect consumers from misleading environmental claims and to ensure fair competition between companies that genuinely invest in sustainability.
What EmpCo Specifically Regulates
The Directive introduces clear prohibitions and obligations to provide evidence. Four core points are relevant for almost all companies that communicate about sustainability:
- Duty of substantiation: General environmental claims such as “green” or “sustainable” are not permitted without recognised evidence.
- Label requirement: Sustainability labels are only permitted if they are based on a certification scheme with independent third-party verification or were established by public authorities.
- Implementation plan: Promises about the future (e.g. climate neutrality by 2040) require publicly available, verifiable commitments in a detailed implementation plan that an independent external expert reviews regularly.
- Ban on offsetting claims: The claim that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive greenhouse gas impact because of CO2 offsetting is expressly prohibited.
In addition, the Directive tightens the requirements for sustainability labels: labels that are neither based on a certification scheme nor established by public authorities are not permitted. Labels must be based on transparent, non-discriminatory criteria, be verified and monitored by independent third parties and provide for clear sanction mechanisms for infringements.
The same applies to claims about future environmental performance: anyone who promises today to be climate neutral by 2040 must present a detailed, publicly available implementation plan – with measurable milestones and independent verification. Generic claims about the whole product, although only a part of it is affected, are also prohibited.
Infringements can be punished as unfair commercial practices – in Austria mainly with actions for injunction and damages, in the case of knowingly misleading advertising with a court fine (§ 4 UWG), and in the case of widespread cross-border infringements with fines of up to 4% of annual turnover (§ 22 UWG).
Transposition into Austrian Law
In Austria, national transposition of EmpCo has already been decided: the National Council passed the UWG amendment on 7 July 2026, which transposes Directive (EU) 2024/825 into Austrian law. The new rules have applied since 27 September 2026.
As a result, the new requirements for environmental claims, sustainability labels and promises about the future also apply bindingly in Austrian law – supplemented by the already existing, active enforcement practice.
Several prominent cases from the recent past show that Austria is no newcomer in this area: the Association for Consumer Information (VKI) successfully sued Brau Union, which had advertised individual products with the term “climate neutral” – although only one partial process was actually offset. Greenwashing allegations against AUA were also examined by the courts. Both proceedings were still conducted on the basis of the UWG that applied until then – a clear signal that Austrian courts are already looking critically at environmental claims. With the transposition of EmpCo, this practice now rests on a considerably more concrete statutory basis.
What Companies Should Do Now
The new rules have applied since 27 September 2026. If you have not yet aligned your sustainability communication with them, you should do so now. Many organisations underestimate the effort that a systematic claims audit requires. Environmental claims appear not only on product packaging, but also on websites, in social media posts, annual reports and advertising materials.
Five action steps help to approach the transformation in a structured way:
- Claims audit: Record all sustainability claims (packaging, website, social media, reports) and check them against the UWG blacklist.
- Close evidence gaps: Build robust documentation – especially for CO2 claims according to ISO 14064/14067 or the GHG Protocol.
- Validate labels: Use only labels that are based on a certification scheme with independent third-party verification or were established by public authorities.
- Secure future claims: Climate targets need a public implementation plan with verifiable milestones and external verification.
- Establish governance: Implement review and approval processes between company management, sustainability and communications.
Climate neutrality promises deserve particular attention: anyone who has so far advertised with “CO2 offset” or “climate neutral” and relied exclusively on offsetting certificates must fundamentally revise their communication. EmpCo explicitly rules out this practice. For claims about future environmental performance, EmpCo requires a detailed, realistic implementation plan with measurable, time-bound targets that independent experts review regularly.
Internal governance is also becoming more important: sustainability communication may in future no longer be a purely marketing-driven process. It requires close cooperation between company management, the sustainability department, the legal department and communications – with clear approval processes and documented evidence.
How NetCero Supports EmpCo Compliance
EmpCo compliance is not purely a legal problem – it is a data problem. Anyone who has to substantiate environmental claims needs a clean, complete and auditable data basis. This is exactly where NetCero comes in.
- EmpCo-optimised text generation (AI): AI-supported drafting assistance that checks environmental claims for EmpCo compliance – before they are published.
- A sound data basis down to the source: Every environmental claim is directly linked to the underlying data source and documented in an audit-proof way.
- Robust transition plans in the tool: Climate targets are modelled and calculated directly in NetCero – transparent, verifiable, compliant.
NetCero combines AI-supported text generation with a sound data basis: all environmental claims formulated in the tool are directly linked to the underlying activity data, emission factors and source documents – audit-proof and traceable down to the data source. This creates exactly the transparency that EmpCo demands.
In addition, NetCero allows robust transition plans to be calculated directly in the tool itself: climate targets are not only formulated as promises, but stored as modelled, verifiable pathways – with concrete measures, milestones and the option of external validation. In this way, companies not only meet the requirements of EmpCo, but also position themselves as credible players in the sustainability debate.
Practical. Pragmatic. Audit-proof. – NetCero makes sustainability communication EmpCo-ready: from data collection to the legally secure claim.
