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AIM together with 13 other associations calls on EU policymakers to harmonise, simplify and clarify the Green Claims Directive to safeguard businesses’ competitiveness

Brussels, 28 February 2025 – AIM, together with 13 other associations calls on EU policymakers to carefully evaluate options to simplify, clarify and streamline the Green Claims Directive during ongoing negotiations, through the lens of the EU simplification and competitiveness agenda. 

 We are fully committed to providing consumers with clear and relevant information on the sustainability of products and businesses. The provision of this information is a catalyst for investments in innovation and sustainability, key for the industry’s competitiveness in Europe.  

 We thus need a proportionate and clear framework on green claims from its outset, levelling the playing field for businesses and safeguarding companies’ competitiveness and incentives to invest, empowering both consumers and businesses in the green transition. If new rules are unclear, impractical and costly, they will de facto prevent businesses from communicating about sustainability, depriving also consumers of such necessary information.  

 We call on EU policymakers to consistently address the current imbalances of the framework and, in particular: 

1. Ensure proportionate substantiation and ex-ante verification requirements, to avoid disproportionate burden and costs for claims related to environmental aspects (e.g., “produced with renewable energy”), which are “straightforward” for their justification.  

1. Address the lack of predictability, practicality and fragmentation of the Single Market under the proposed ex-ante verification and certification process.  

1. Include feasible transition periods, in particular for products with claims already on the market before the Directive’s application, to avoid destruction of packaging and products, which would be contrary to the EU environmental objectives. 

1. Avoid including rules on claims on products with hazardous substances – these would not only risk overlapping with existing legislation but also unjustifiably exclude some products from green claims eligibility.  

1. Ensure a clear scope of the Green Claims Directive, without creating overlaps with other EU legislation, such as the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.  

We stand ready to support EU policymakers with our expertise, exploring solutions to ensure a clear, predictable and practical framework for green claims, empowering both businesses and consumers in the green transition. 

Read the full statement here.