Consumer ISG - Holiday Guide 2021 - Flipbook - Page 14
The Hogan Lovells Holiday Guide 2021
Focus on the UK:
Marketing your “green”
credentials this holiday?
Make sure they’re legally green
Helen McGowan, Micaela Bostrom, Georgia Hughes, London
The message from COP 2026 could not be clearer - act
now or it will be too late for our planet. Perfect timing
for retailers seeking to maximise on consumer appetite
for environmentally responsible products as the holiday
season approaches. But retailers be warned – “green
claims” by businesses (usually in the form of marketing or
promotional language that claims that a product, service
or business practice minimises harm to, or even has a
positive effect on, the environment) have recently caught
the attention of UK regulators who are demanding greater
transparency and proper substantiation of green claims.
UK consumer protection law already prohibits unfair
commercial practices by retailers. This includes a ban on
false or misleading statements or omissions, which might
induce a consumer to make a transactional decision
they would not have otherwise made. Such practices are
illegal and could potentially amount to a criminal offence.
Given the increasing weight and influence of green claims
in particular, the Competition and Markets Authority
(“CMA”) has recently published a Green Claims Code to
help ensure retailers and other business understand and
comply with their existing obligations under consumer
protection law in the context of making green claims.
The CMA’s view is that the effect of existing law is that
businesses must ensure that their green claims:
•a
re truthful and accurate;
•a
re clear and unambiguous;
•d
o not omit or hide important information;
• compare goods or services in a fair and meaningful way;
• consider the full life cycle of the product or service; and
•a
re substantiated.
One key point set out in the Green Claims Code is that
consumer protection law does not prevent retailers from
making environmental and sustainability claims about
their products and services, providing they do not
mislead consumers.
With the CMA signalling an intention to more closely
scrutinise environmental claims going forward (including
a full compliance review of green claims in early 2022),
retailers should take care to ensure that their green
claims are truthful and can be properly substantiated
before seeking to capitalise on the current sustainability
agenda. At the same time, retailers whose products are
genuinely ‘green’ should see this as an opportunity. The
Green Claims Code not only helps businesses stay on
the right side of the law but it also protects them from
unfair competition and helps create a level playing
field. In the end, this should benefit environmentallyconscious consumers, as well as responsible retailers.
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