Greenwashing Under Scrutiny: What Businesses Need to Know About the EU EmpCo Directive

In February 2024, the European Union adopted Directive 2024/825 on “empowering consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and through better information“. It is also known as the “EmpCo”-Directive. It must be transposed into the national law of the European Union’s Member States by the end of September 2026.

The aim of the Directive is to protect consumers from unfair commercial practices which mislead them through inaccurate, environmental claims about goods and services, thereby preventing them from making sustainable consumption choices. The purpose of the Directive, as widely publicised in the media and in political statements, is to put a stop to ‘greenwashing’.

To achieve this aim, the EmpCo-Directive amends two key European Union consumer protection directives, namely Directive 2005/29/EC concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices and Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights.

Directive 2005/29/EC concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices, for example, is amended to expand the list of unfair commercial practices.

For instance, the use of a sustainability label that is not based on a certification scheme or has not been established by public authorities is prohibited. General environmental claims about a product or service are also unlawful if the claim cannot be substantiated. Furthermore, claims relating to greenhouse gas offsetting – and stating that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive impact on the environment in terms of greenhouse gases – are prohibited.

The list of commercial practices classified as misleading is being expanded. For example, making an environmental claim about future environmental performance without a clear, objective, publicly accessible and verifiable commitment is misleading.

Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights is being extended, in particular, to include information obligations on traders towards consumers regarding statutory warranty rights and commercial durability guarantees. In the case of goods with digital elements and content, as well as digital services, traders must in future provide information on the minimum period during which the manufacturer will provide software updates.

Based on a corresponding authorisation in Directive 2011/83/EU, the European Union has since issued an implementing regulation, 2025/1960, which specifies in detail how the information on statutory warranty rights and any durability guarantees must be presented in terms of both content and layout.

In Austria, the European legal acts outlined above are being implemented through an amendment to the Act against Unfair Competition (UWG) and the Consumer Rights Amendment Act 2026, which amends the Consumer Protection Act (KSchG) and the Distance and Off-Premises Sales Act (FAGG).

In line with the requirements of European law, the list of misleading commercial practices in the UWG, for example, is being expanded to include a total of twelve additional misleading commercial practices.
The various new information obligations on traders towards consumers introduced by European law are being implemented in the KSchG and the FAGG.

The above remarks are merely a brief and summarised account of highly complex European legal requirements that are being transposed into national Austrian law.

In future, businesses must take particular care to ensure that all marketing statements which refer in any way to the environment or which promote the warranty or other rights of purchasers are permissible, accurate and complete in accordance with the new legal requirements and are also presented in the correct form. The team at BMA Law and Tax would be delighted to assist you with legal advice in this regard.

About Brandstaetter Rechtsanwaelte GmbH:

AGA's law firm representative in Austria, BMA Brandstätter Rechtsanwälte GmbH is an independent Austrian business law firm with strong international ties and a simple philosophy: Legal advice must be clear and comprehensible; our clients shall profit from our services and in order to fulfil this promise, we offer our clients a team of highly qualified business lawyers; and one individual lawyer for each mandate counsel in all important areas of business law.  

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