Associate Partner
Attorney at Law (Germany)
Greenwashing Trap EmpCo: Will Your Environmental Advertising Withstand Scrutiny from September?
- Empo Directive enters into force on 27 September 2026.
- Environmental promises become a compliance issue.
- Increasing requirements for robust evidence for environmental claims.
- Strategic approach to EmpCo compliance through our RÖDL EmpCo Screening.
Naomi Mzyk
Senior Associate
B.A. Management in Organic and Sustainability Business
Sustainable, climate-neutral, environmentally friendly – such claims have long been part of many companies' marketing. With the EmpCo Directive, however, the legal framework for environment-related advertising claims is changing. Companies will need to look more closely in future: Which claims will still be permissible? What evidence is required? And what should companies be reviewing today?
From the ESG News Newsletter Subscribe to Newsletter
Key Points of the New Regulation
The EmpCo Directive tightens the requirements for environment-related claims and sustainability communication. The aim is to better protect consumers from misleading environmental promises and to increase the comparability of sustainability information. For companies, this means in particular that claims regarding environmental and sustainability performance must be more substantively evidenced and verifiable in future.
The following will be prohibited in particular:
- The use of generic environmental claims (“environmentally friendly”, “green”, “eco”) without corresponding explanation and evidence of a recognized excellent environmental performance,
- Claims of climate neutrality when achieved through offsetting,
- Statements on future environmental performance (“net zero 2035”) without a realistic, evidenced, externally verified and publicly accessible implementation plan,
- Sustainability labels / own labels without transparent criteria and independent verification.
In addition, there are:
- Extended grounds for misleading practices to include false or deceptive information about essential characteristics of a product or service with regard to ecological or social features and circularity aspects or recyclability, as well as
- Far-reaching new information obligations, for example regarding durability, repairability and existing guarantees and rights.
What Does This Mean for Companies?
For companies, the new regulation means above all one thing: sustainability communication must become more robust. Existing environmental and sustainability claims should therefore be systematically identified and reviewed for their legal permissibility and their technical verifiability.
The challenge lies not only in obvious terms such as “climate-neutral” or “environmentally friendly”. Sustainability claims are now found in numerous places in corporate communications – for example on websites, in product brochures, annual and sustainability reports, press releases or social media posts. Even statements that are not immediately recognizable as classic “green claims” can convey a relevant environmental impression due to their specific wording and context. A simple search for individual keywords therefore falls short. What matters is the content of the statement, the context and the effect on consumers or competitors.
At the same time, the provision of evidence is gaining importance: companies should be able to document comprehensibly on what data basis a claim is made, what methodology was applied and by what documentation the claim can be substantiated. Sustainability communication and the underlying data and evidence processes must therefore be considered more holistically.
From Screening to Robust Sustainability Communication
A first step is to create transparency about one’s own communication and to systematically record potentially relevant claims. A keyword search can serve as an initial filter. However, a comprehensive assessment requires a more extensive content-based and context-related analysis.
The AI-supported RÖDL EmpCo Screening offers a quick entry point: it automatically searches entire websites and publicly accessible documents for relevant environmental and sustainability claims and produces a structured report. The identified findings are classified according to their potential review requirement, thus enabling targeted further assessment.
On this basis, companies can then review which claims should be adjusted, further specified or substantiated by appropriate evidence. Further information on RÖDL EmpCo Screening can be found on our website.
We are happy to support you with the subsequent legal and technical assessment of the identified claims as well as with the development of robust and verifiable sustainability communication and documentation.
