From uncertainty to planned withdrawal

Earlier in July 2025, we discussed the uncertainty surrounding the Green Claims Directive after the final trilogue negotiations were unexpectedly cancelled (see ESG Update: Green Claims Directive is here to stay?). The Commission subsequently clarified that no final decision had been taken, leaving the proposal formally on the table. The 2027 Work Programme now provides greater clarity on the EU Commission’s intended course.

On 4 November 2026, the EU Commission published its 2027 Work Programme Annex III identifies the Green Claims Directive among the pending legislative proposals that the EU Commission intends to withdraw within six months, as it considers that the proposal is unlikely to secure sufficient support in the Council within a reasonable timeframe. The Work Programme merely announces the EU Commission’s intention to withdraw the proposal; the Green Claims Directive remains formally pending until the EU Commission completes the withdrawal procedure.

How the ECGT Directive and Green Claims Directive fit(ted) together

The Green Claims Directive and the ECGT Directive were designed as complementary parts of the EU framework against greenwashing. The ECGT Directive amended the general EU consumer-law framework by introducing specific rules on environmental claims and sustainability labels (please be refferd to The ECGT Directive Playbook: what EU companies need to know and do). However, it does not prescribe in detail how companies should substantiate their environmental claims. According to the EU Commission in its Green Claims Directive proposal of 22 March 2023, this could result in diverging approaches across Member States, creating legal uncertainty, higher compliance costs and an uneven playing field within the internal market.

The proposed Green Claims Directive was intended to address that gap. As lex specialis for voluntary environmental claims and labels, it would introduce more detailed and harmonised requirements for their substantiation and communication. Among other things, companies would have to rely on recognised scientific evidence and consider relevant impacts from a life-cycle perspective, while environmental claims and labelling schemes within scope would be subject to independent third-party verification.

In short, the ECGT Directive sets the general consumer-law rules on environmental marketing practices, while the Green Claims Directive was intended to provide the more detailed framework for substantiating, communicating and verifying environmental claims.

What would withdrawal of the Green Claims Directive mean for companies?

The withdrawal of the Green Claims Directive would remove an additional layer of regulation, but not the underlying rules against greenwashing. The ECGT Directive remains unaffected and its requirements continue to apply.

More importantly, the withdrawal would mean that the more detailed and harmonised framework envisaged by the Green Claims Directive for substantiating, communicating and verifying environmental claims would not take effect. This leaves an important practical question: how should companies substantiate environmental claims to comply with the ECGT Directive, particularly where the ECGT Directive itself does not prescribe a specific methodology and/or when doing business in different EU member states?

What should companies do now?

Companies should continue to review their environmental claims, sustainability labels and supporting evidence against the ECGT requirements and applicable national rules. Our ECGT Directive Playbook sets out, as a starting point, the ECGT Directive’s scope, the newly blacklisted practices and practical steps companies can already take.

At the same time, further guidance from the European Commission would be welcome on how companies should substantiate environmental claims in practice under the ECGT framework. In the absence of the more detailed Green Claims Directive regime, such guidance could provide greater clarity on the evidence and methodologies companies can use to demonstrate compliance and help promote a more consistent approach across the EU.

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