What are the top three developments in Romania concerning green claims and the associated risk of greenwashing?
In recent years, Romanian consumers have been demonstrating an increasing degree of care and attention to sustainable, ecological, “green” and “fair trade” products. This is also noted in the market where there is an increasing offer of such products.
The fact that Romanian consumers are aware of environmental effects is supported by Google search engine statistics, which show that in the period from January to April 2022, the top searches from Romania in environmental and ecological fields were “solar energy”, “vegan”, “recycling”, “pollution”, “electric car”, “wind power”, “sustainability”, “wind turbine” and “renewable energy”.
Although “green claims” are not a topic with high visibility in Romania at present, ecological misinformation is generally deemed to be an unfair commercial practice in respect of which various sanctions may be applied by the National Authority for Consumer Protection (the “NACP”). In addition, the NACP has confirmed that consumers may file “greenwashing” related claims via its general consumer protection channel. Hence, we expect this topic will continue to grow and evolve into a higher priority in Romania.
We have identified 3 developments at a national level which are likely to be relevant to future developments in this field:
1. Consumer awareness is increasing due to NGO campaigns and media, with improvement of waste management infrastructure and collection scheme efficiency being top priorities.
NGOs and mass media appear to be more and more attentive to and vocal about greenwashing-related subjects. We expect to see an increase in the level of attention scrutinising sustainability-oriented messages, “green products” and energy efficiency promotion, as well as efficiencies relating to waste recycling campaigns.
Amongst other issues, NGOs and the mass media claim that there is insufficient waste management infrastructure at a national level. Furthermore, improvement of waste management infrastructure and related schemes and practices are regarded by the national regulators as very important means of attaining a more effective degree of environmental efficiency and protection. In particular, waste-related activities and transactions are being monitored by the relevant environmental authorities, via electronic systems, for certain levels of flow. These systems are predominantly intended to ensure that recycling and recovery of waste are in fact performed, for example regarding packaging waste.
2. National authorities have developed a guide to improve public access to environmental information.
One of the most recent initiatives of the Romanian Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests endeavours to set out a guide to improve public access to environmental information. While such access is legally established through the Aarhus Convention and subsequent EU and national legislation, it was found to be necessary to improve the manner in which it is further implemented at national level. To this end, the Ministry has published a draft guide which is currently pending public consultation. This is part of a national strategy to improve public information channels and encompasses three main lines of actions, namely:
- Legislative amendments to provide better and more visible access for the public into administrative topics;
- Improving the awareness of public officers regarding the need to ensure public access to information on the environmental impacts of administrative processes; and
- Setting out dedicated channels for receiving, monitoring and addressing public access requests in this field.
Recently, the subject of sustainability reporting (which is related to potential greenwashing) became a major topic. As a result, companies are more and more focused on setting out clear reporting objectives to ensure they will be in line with the new EU requirements in the corporate sustainability field. This follows the adoption by the European Parliament and European Council of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive at the end of 2022. The mandatory transposition process is also expected to start in Romania in the near future and it is likely that the new rules will also reflect on the issue around greenwashing practices.
3. Stricter rules for agricultural and food businesses with a view to ensure fair trade practices.
In April 2022, the Unfair Trading Practices Directive (“UTP”) was promulgated into Romanian law and triggered significant changes in the agricultural and food products industries. The underlying impact, amongst others, will be the implementation of more stable and balanced commercial practices favouring small and medium-sized producers and a focus on consumer options by blacklisting certain practices deemed to be unfair, including certain product marketing practices.
From a practical standpoint, companies which fall within the scope of the UTP rules in Romania must adhere to specific reporting requirements if their work relates to the food and agricultural industry supply chain. At the end of 2022, the Competition Council published draft guidance, on the procedure for registration, investigation and resolution of claims related to unfair trading practices between companies in the agricultural and food supply chain sectors. The Regulation is expected to be adopted in the near future and will shed more light on the interpretation and application of the UTP rules in Romania by the Competition Council, the relevant authority in this field.
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