The EmpCo Directive: how companies may advertise sustainability from September 2026

From 27 September 2026, new rules apply in Germany to environmental advertising claims. Anyone communicating about sustainability projects has to be more precise from that date than before, otherwise a well-meant statement becomes a breach of competition law (Wettbewerbsverstoß).

What the EmpCo Directive regulates

The change comes from Directive (EU) 2024/825, usually called EmpCo, short for Empowering Consumers. Germany transposed it into the German Act Against Unfair Competition (UWG) in February 2026; it applies from 27 September 2026.

The aim is to protect consumers from misleading environmental claims (Umweltaussagen). It applies not only to manufacturers of consumer goods, but to anyone whose consumer advertising makes an environmental claim.

The main prohibitions

General environmental claims without evidence are not permitted. Terms such as environmentally friendly, green, climate-friendly or sustainable may no longer be used as blanket claims if there is no recognised, demonstrated environmental performance behind them.

Carbon-neutrality claims (Klimaneutralitätsaussagen) that rest on compensation are likewise not permitted. That rules out the claim “carbon neutral through offsetting” (klimaneutral durch Ausgleichszahlungen).

Promises about the future need a plan. Anyone advertising a target such as “carbon neutral by 2030” has to present a public, verifiable implementation plan with measurable interim targets that is independently reviewed at regular intervals.

Your own sustainability labels (Nachhaltigkeitssiegel) without independent certification are no longer allowed.

What happened to the Green Claims Directive

A second set of rules was planned in parallel, the Green Claims Directive, which would have set out the evidence requirements in detail. The Commission stopped the proposal in June 2025 after no majority was found in the trilogue. The procedure has been dormant since then.

None of that changes EmpCo. The directive has been adopted, transposed and is binding from September.

Why concrete projects are at an advantage

The new rules hit vague statements, not concrete ones.

“We act sustainably” is open to challenge. “We processed 2,400 square metres of advertising banner from the 2025 campaign into 1,100 bags instead of disposing of them” is not an environmental claim within the meaning of the directive, but a statement of fact with evidence.

Projects with a traceable path for the material become easier to communicate as a result, not harder. What is described is what happened, not which values you hold in principle.

Three wordings that work

Quantities instead of adjectives: square metres, unit numbers, kilogrammes.

Origin instead of effect: what the product was made from, instead of what it supposedly achieves.

Before and after instead of a declaration of intent: what would otherwise have happened to the material, instead of what you have set out to do.

Collect the figures while the project is running

All three points presuppose that the figures are available. Quantity of material, number of products and alternative scenario come up in an upcycling project anyway. They just have to be written down — and written down while the project is still running. After the event they can hardly be reconstructed.