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Brussels, 17-09-1999
Euro Coop's Comments to the Commission's Consultation Document on Green Claims.
Euro Coop has been calling for EU legislation on green claims for many years in order to provide consumers with neutral and reliable information. Therefore Euro Coop welcomes the European Commission's initiative to elaborate a Community approach on green claims. Nevertheless, Euro Coop is concerned by the Commission's proposal to regulate green claims through the misleading advertising directive (directive 84/450/EEC). Euro Coop does not believe it is the appropriate context for regulating green claims. Euro Coop is of the opinion that a separate legislation is needed. In addition, Euro Coop only sees such a legislation as the first step in the right direction of the more ambitious target in having only sustainable products on the market as a matter of the consumer's health and safety in the long run.
In the Commission's consultation document it is suggested to have a legal framework consisting of four components:
- An amended directive 84/450/EEC.
- Standards on Green Claims (ISO 14021).
- Guidelines for assessment of green claims.
- Monitoring of green claims.
Euro Coop disagrees on the first component on having an amended directive. Instead Euro Coop believes that a better approach to take on the whole area of green claims would be to require all products to bear a declaration of the full content on their packaging according to the directive 79/112 on product labelling. Furthermore, Euro Coop suggests that green claims should only be used in conjunction with an approved labelling scheme such as the EU Eco-Label scheme, national Eco-Label schemes meeting the requirements in ISO 14020 or national schemes authorised in accordance with Regulation EC 2092/91. Any other use of green claims would require a whole new legal framework. Euro Coop believes that until the adoption of the international standard ISO 14021 the standards on green claims must comply with the international standard ISO 14020.
On the monitoring of green claims, Euro Coop does believe it is important to have monitoring committees consisting of the competent authorities, consumer associations, and associations representing economic operators interested (including associations of consumer co-operatives) in order to monitor the proper implementation of the green claims legal framework in each Member State.
It is not enough only to have "the reversal of the burden of proof" to secure the consumer's rights. There must be a permanent body or authority at EU level and/or national level to deal with consumer complaints and sanctions against companies violating the green claims' legal framework. An idea could be for the Commission to look into the functioning of the Nordic ombudsman for inspiration. Another important aspect Euro Coop would like to raise is the clarification of how "the reversal of the burden of proof" is going to work in practice. It is necessary that "the reversal of burden of proof" states clearly that where advertisers make a claim they should have a dossier that can substantiate that claim in order to avoid misleading advertising.
Euro Coop agrees on the Commission's proposal of having guidelines for assessment of green claims and that these should be part of the overall legal framework. Furthermore, Euro Coop agrees on the Commission's proposals in the annex of the consultation document for the content of the guidelines on green claims to be: 1. Clear, specific, explicit and understandable by those to whom they are addressed. 2. Relevant and used in an appropriate context and taking into account the entire life cycle. 3. Accurate, substantiated, verified and documented. However, Euro Coop believes the following should be included in order for the guidelines to be of use for both producers and consumers, as well as a guidance when settling disputes:
- Green claims must be unambiguously leaving no room for doubt for the consumer.
- Green claims should only be mentioning the important and relevant things about the product in the declaration.
- When using symbols on a product it should only be the EU or national Eco-label schemes in order to avoid confusion and lack of transparency for the consumer. If using other images these must be documented and well-founded before use to avoid misleading marketing.
- In case of the use of comparative claims, the comparison should only be with similar products.
- When an assessment is made on the importance of the product's green claims consideration must be taken on how the product stands environmentally compared to other products in the same group.
- If a harmful component has been removed in a product, the producer is not to use it as a main argument for a "greener" product unless the producer is certain that:
- The component had a significant environmental impact.
- A safer alternative has been substituted.
- None of the other components is known to be harmful.
- Products still exist on the market containing the harmful ingredient.
- The producer must be able to prove all his green claims. This concerns the veracity of the claim used as the main argument, any claims about the ecological properties of the product, and marketing statements describing the consequences of buying or not buying a product that is less of a burden on the environment.
- The producer must not leave out any important information about the product entirely or present the information in a misleading way.
- When using the terms: "recovery" and "recycling" it must be clear:
- If it concerns the product itself, the packaging, or the raw material of either.
- Whether it is the packaging or the product that is made from recycling material and if so to what extent.
- Or whether the consumer can send the product or packaging for recycling after use or re-use them himself.
Euro Coop suggests that "the guidelines for producers on environmentally oriented claims in marketing" set up by the Nordic consumer ombudsmen in March 1994 could serve as a basis when drawing up the guidelines for the EU.
Euro Coop suggests that the Commission sets up a homepage containing information on the EU and/or national body for consumers' work, the work of the monitoring committees, guidelines for using green claims for producers etc.. As it is important that as much information is available to producers and consumers to promote sustainable consumption.
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