During a webinar held on June 12, 2026, Ambroise Pascal, the DGCCRF’s Delegate for Ecological Transition, and his team addressed the main issues raised by the implementation of Directive (EU) 2024/825, which aims to combat commercial practices that amount to greenwashing. The second part of their presentation focused on generic environmental claims and future environmental claims.
Continuation of the articles:
• Everything you need to know about Directive (EU) 2024/825 and unfair greenwashing practices
• Sustainability labels in Directive (EU) 2024/825
Directive (EU) 2024/825 defines a generic environmental claim as “any environmental claim made in written or oral form, including through audiovisual media, that is not included on a sustainability label and where the specification of the claim is not provided in clear and prominent terms on the same medium.”
The terms of the definition
A wording
It should be noted that a generic claim must be “explicitly stated,” which excludes implicit representations: a green color or the image of a tree cannot be considered generic claims.
Exemples
Whereas 9 of the Directive provides examples of generic claims; this list includes “Environmentally friendly”, “Eco-friendly”, “Green”, “Nature’s friend”, “Ecological”, “Environmentally correct”, “Climate friendly”, “Gentle on the environment”, “Carbon friendly”, “Energy efficient”, “Biodegradable”, “biobased” or, the text says, similar statements that suggest or create the impression of excellent environmental performance.
“This closely resembles the claims that have been banned since the AGEC law,” noted Alice Chonik, deputy head of the Consumer Law Office at the DGCCRF, “because it is based on the same …
