Directive (EU) 2024/825 — the "Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition" directive — amends the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. Member states had to write it into national law by 27 March 2026, and the rules apply to traders from 27 September 2026.
It is not a new standalone law you register for. It changes what counts as an unfair commercial practice, which means it is enforced by the same consumer-protection authorities that already police misleading advertising in your market.
Four things matter for a typical shop.
Vague environmental claims. "Eco-friendly", "green", "sustainable", "climate friendly", "biodegradable" and similar words are banned as generic environmental claims unless you can demonstrate recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to the claim. In practice, if the word is doing marketing work rather than describing something measurable, it is a problem.
Carbon neutrality based on offsetting. Claiming a product has a neutral, reduced or positive environmental impact *because emissions are offset* is banned outright. "Carbon neutral shipping", "climate neutral", "net zero" and "CO2 compensated" fall here. This one has no exceptions to argue your way into — offsetting is specifically what the rule targets.
Sustainability labels you made up. A label is only allowed if it is based on a certification scheme or established by a public authority. Your own green leaf badge is not a certification scheme.
Legal rights sold as a feature. Offering a "free 2-year warranty" as if it were a perk is already prohibited, because the two-year legal guarantee is something every EU consumer has anyway. Presenting it as your generosity is misleading.
Two more catch people out: future promises like "carbon neutral by 2030" need clear, objective, publicly available and verifiable commitments with independent monitoring behind them; and durability claims need substantiating.
Specific, true, substantiated claims are fine and always were. "Made with 60% recycled plastic" is a legitimate claim if it is accurate and you can show it. The directive is aimed at vagueness and at offsetting, not at environmental communication generally.
Read your product descriptions as if you had to prove every adjective. Remove the vague ones, delete the offsetting claims, replace "free 2-year warranty" wording with a plain statement of the legal guarantee, and make your specific claims specific enough to defend.
Then display the harmonised notice about the legal guarantee of conformity — see article 3.
ClaimSafe EU scans your products, collections and pages for these categories, explains each finding, and applies rule-based fixes with full undo. It cannot tell you whether your recycled-content figure is true — nobody but you can — so claims that need facts come back as templates for you to fill in.
It is a tool, not legal advice. Check anything consequential with your own adviser.