Czech Republic - Sustainability claims and greenwashing
What are the top three developments in the territory of the Czech Republic concerning green claims and the associated risk of greenwashing?
Environmental issues are receiving more attention each year in the Czech Republic. This applies to all areas of commercial activities, from agriculture to industry, but at present is particularly visible in the consumer products and services sector, where the use of green claims is very much on the rise.
We have summarized below three points that companies operating in the Czech Republic or otherwise targeting Czech consumers should be aware of when using green claims when advertising their goods or services.
1. A rise in public awareness and interest in sustainability in the absence of robust regulation
Public awareness and interest in the environmental impact of goods and services is on the increase in the Czech Republic. However, the regulation of such environmental claims is somewhat lagging behind the reality on the market. For this reason, public scrutiny of such claims is, at present, largely driven by consumer organisations and the media, both of which increase public attention and scrutiny of such claims. This leads to the filing of complaints with the relevant authorities. Some consumer organisations have also published guidelines on how to properly analyse consumer products, and have shared examples of misleading information which has been found to have been displayed on specific products.
With the increased public awareness and interest in environmental claims, even manufacturers themselves have started to focus on greenwashing, and are now providing consumers with more and more information specifically related to their business areas.
2. Possible changes in the regulation of environmental claims
Czech law provides certain regulation of green claims, for instance, in the area of eco-labelling, but it does not provide a general framework for the use of such claims. Currently, greenwashing claims are considered as unfair commercial practices under the Act No. 634/1992 Coll., on the Protection of a Consumer, as amended (“Consumer Protection Act”). This means that greenwashing claims are not prohibited per se, but only if they, in fact, constitute an unfair commercial practice. This is assessed in administrative proceedings by the competent authority.
This may soon change if the European Union passes a new Directive amending Directives 2005/29/EC and 2011/83/EU (the “Greenwashing Directive”). This would empower consumers as part of the green transition, by allowing better consumer protection against unfair practices and access to better information.
The Greenwashing Directive is aimed at tackling unfair commercial practices which prevent consumers from making sustainable consumption choices, such as practices and claims associated with the early obsolescence of goods, misleading environmental claims, non-transparent and non-credible sustainability labels, or sustainability information tools, etc. Implementation of the Greenwashing Directive should specifically prohibit the following:
- Environmental claims which are not supported by clear, objective and verifiable commitments and targets and which will be subject to a case-by-case assessment. Such claims should also be supported by an independent monitoring system to monitor the progress of the trader with regard to their commitments and targets;
- Displaying of sustainability labels which are not based on a certification scheme or not established by public authorities;
- The making of generic environmental claims which are not accompanied by a recognised environmental performance excellence indicator which is relevant to the claim. Examples of such generic environmental claims are “environmentally friendly”, “eco-friendly”, “eco”, “green”, “nature’s friend”, “ecological”, “environmentally correct”, “climate friendly”, “gentle on the environment”, “carbon friendly”, “carbon neutral”, “carbon positive”, “climate neutral”, “energy efficient”, “biodegradable”, “biobased”, and other similar statements, as well as broader statements such as “conscious” or “responsible”, which suggest or create the impression of excellent environmental performance; and
- Environmental claims about an entire product when they actually concern only a certain aspect of the product.
3. The adoption of a national program on environmental claims
The Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic has adopted a National Program on Environmental Claims (“Program”) which was last updated in 2017. The Program is divided to three parts and summarises the applicable regulations and ISO norms to the individual parts, namely:
- Eco-labelling;
- Environmental claims; and
- Environmental product declarations.
In cooperation with the Environmental Information Agency, the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic also adopted Guidelines on the Use of Own Environmental Claims (the “Guidelines”). The Guidelines are aimed at providing clear and conscious advice on the lawful use of environmental claims, and specifically require:
- Environmental claims to be accurate, verifiable, relevant, and not misleading;
- Environmental claims to be supported by the data obtained in a sufficiently thorough and exhaustive procedure, and whose results are accurate and may be reproduced in order to sufficiently support the claim;
- Information on the procedure, methodology and all criteria used for supporting environmental claims, must be publicly available or provided upon request; and
- That the formulation of environmental claims should take into account all appropriate aspects of the life cycle of the products or services (although it is not necessary to carry out the entire life cycle analysis).
Whilst the Program or the Guidelines are not binding, they serve as valuable guidance as to the standards and good commercial practices expected of traders in the Czech Republic.
