Belgium: guidelines on the use of environmental claims

Aude Mahy, Partner leading the Food Law team, and Floriane Delbaere, associate, published in the European Food and Feed Law Review a report on the recent adoption, in Belgium, of guidelines on the use environmental claims.

As written by the lawyers, “[t]he practice or rather the issue of greenwashing is not a novelty. Environmental marketing is a widespread trend and a powerful tool on the current marketplace in the wake of the growing attention for climate change and climate action. Consumers are confronted with a proliferation of claims ans statements relating to the environment, ecology, and sustainable development (cf. Farm to Fork Strategy).
On 14 June 2022, to better delineate and frame environmental claims (commonly known as green claims), ant to tackle the practice of greenwashing, the Belgian administration issued guidance on the use of environmental claims (cf. Directive 2005/29/EC – Article VI.93 to VI.100 Belgian Code of Economic Law), which is certainly to evolve with new legislative amendments and updates. These guidelines are directly addressed to enterprises, enabling them, by means of ten parameters, to assess and verify whether the environmental information they intend to provide to the consumer is accurate, truthful, not-misleading, and sufficiently substantiated; simply put to assess and verify whether they don’t engage in practices of greenwashing.”

The full report, in English, is available on the Lexxion website: https://effl.lexxion.eu/article/EFFL/2022/4/10.