New regulation on the use of environmental claims etc. to combat greenwashing

Aside from the proposed changes to the Marketing Practices Act described below, the bill also introduces amendments to the Danish Consumer Contracts Act and Consumer Complaints Act. Learn more about those here.

Currently, the Marketing Practices Act does not have any provisions specifically targeting the use of environmental claims. However, the general prohibitions against misleading marketing practices and omissions in Sections 5 and 6 have been supplemented by the Danish Consumer Ombudsman’s guidelines on environmental marketing that were recently updated in October 2024. Learn more about the guidelines here (in Danish).

With the proposed amendments, several new definitions are introduced, including a definition of environmental claims and sustainability labels. Further, Annex 1 to the act which contains a list of marketing practices that will always be considered misleading or aggressive, will be expanded.  

Environmental claims

Two of the proposed definitions to be included in Section 2 of the Marketing Practices Act are definitions of environmental claims and generic environmental claims.

Environmental claims are non-mandatory claims presented in any form, such as text, images, brand names, etc., in the context of commercial communication, and which state or imply that, e.g. a product has a positive or zero impact on the environment, is less damaging to the environment than other products, or has improved its impact over time.

The use of environmental claims is not and will not be prohibited; however, the claims must be verifiable. In general, the more specific a claim is, the easier it is to document. The documentation of such claims will be further regulated by the upcoming Green Claims directive. Learn more about the Green Claims directive here. 

The proposed amendments to Annex 1 regarding environmental claims will include that:

• Making an environmental claim about an entire product will be misleading when the claim only concerns a certain aspect of the product.
• Claiming that a product has a neutral, reduced, or positive impact on the environment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions will be misleading if the claim is based on the offsetting of greenhouse gas emissions.

Further, the amendments to Section 5 of the act will specifically impose requirements for the documentation of environmental claims related to future environmental performance, e.g. in the form of implementation plans and third-party verifications.

A sub-category of environmental claims is generic environmental claims. Preamble 9 to the ECGT Directive provides several examples of generic environmental claims, including "environmentally friendly", "green", "ecological", "climate friendly", "carbon friendly", "energy efficient", "biodegradable", or similar statements that suggest excellent environmental performance. 

The claim "climate-friendly packaging" would, for example, be a generic environmental claim, whereas the statement that "100% of the energy used to produce this packaging comes from renewable energy sources" would be specific.

Generic environmental claims are not necessarily prohibited, but the amendments to Annex 1 provide that it will be misleading to make a generic environmental claim if "recognised excellent environmental performance" cannot be demonstrated. This entails that the environmental performance must meet the requirements and comply with, e.g. the EU Ecolabel or national or regional ecolabelling schemes that are officially recognised in the Member States, such as Nordic Swan Ecolabel (Svanemærket). Even if this can be demonstrated, generic statements such as "sustainable" should be avoided, as such claims also relate to social characteristics, not solely environmental characteristics.

Although environmental claims will be specifically governed in the act, the amendments are to a wide extent a codification of what already applies based on the general prohibition on misleading marketing practices and the Consumer Ombudsman's guidelines.

Other signific amendments

Aside from the amendments mentioned above, several marketing practices will be included in Annex 1.

The use of sustainability labels - meaning any voluntary trust marks, quality marks or similar that are used to market e.g. a product's environmental or social characteristics - will be misleading if such labels are not based on a third-party verification certification scheme or not established by public authorities will be considered misleading. 

It will also specifically become prohibited to market a product using irrelevant benefits for consumers. An example would be if a bottle of water is marketed as gluten free. 

The same applies if a requirement imposed by law is marketed as a distinctive feature of the product. An example of this would be marketing a product as being free of a chemical substance that is prohibited by law in all products in the product category. 

The amendments also include provisions on for example the marketing of software updates and communication about the durability of products. 

When will the proposed amendments enter into force? 

The amendments to the Marketing Practices Act will be effective from 27 September 2026. 

To prepare for the new regulation, we encourage businesses consider the upcoming regulation when planning any marketing and communication activities.

Do you want to know more?

If you have any questions regarding the new bill, the use of environmental claims, or similar, please contact Plesner's Marketing Law and Consumer Law team.