By Emeritus Professor, Harold Goodwin, updated 21 April 2026
“If you are being told that you must certify to protect your business from mis-selling, reflect on the fact that certification has been remarkably unsuccessful across Europe.”
The Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (ECD) will apply across the EU from September 2026 and will address further areas of mis-selling. The changes most likely to impact tourism businesses are:
1. making an environmental claim that is unsubstantiated, or not based on a product’s entire life cycle
2. making an environmental claim without “clear, objective, publicly available and verifiable commitments.”
It is no longer acceptable to claim that a product is green without considering how it is dealt with as waste. Obviously, this would make it impossible to suggest that potable water in a plastic bottle was “green” or that potatoes sold in non-biodegradable bags were “environmentally friendly.”
https://traveltomorrow.com/cheaper-and-smarter-ways-to-prevent-mis-selling-without-certification
Governments are putting in place legislation to control how organisations claim and report on sustainable activity. In this post we will provide regular updates on the some of latest legislation and provide useful links to guidance, standards and legal judgements.
The Global Destination Sustainability Movement, the European Travel Commission and NECSTouR have produced an excellent guide to the EmpCo “Proof, Not Promises” with valuable advice about how to make credible sustainability claims. Their advice about how to safely claim credit for your efforts in the marketplace is clearly put.
As they point out, the new regulation redefines how the sustainability ambition is “expressed, evidenced, and trusted.” Take the opportunity, claim the credit you deserve for taking responsibility
On 1st December 2025 it was reporterd that the Danish Counsel Presidency has abandoned efforts to reach a majority agreement on plans for a Green Claims Directive in the EU.
The original proposed EU plans to implement a Green Claims Directive had caused concern particularly amongst small to medium enterprises. Across Europe there is already a range of national legislation intended to regulate mis-selling. The Green Claims Proposal was initially proposed in March 2023 and was intended to counter greenwashing. In June 2025, the EC announced its intention to withdraw the proposal because of opposition in the European Parliament, though the Danish Presidency has been continuing to pursue the idea.
2. Empowering Consumers For the Green Transition comes into force in 2026
Whether or not the Green Claims Directive eventually passes through the European Parliament, misselling regulation is being very substantially strengthened. The Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (ECD) will apply across the EU from September 2026.
On 12 January 2026 Real Economy Progress reported that: “The Commission has been tight-lipped about the future of the proposed anti-greenwashing law, which it controversially suspended last summer. Whether it will be revived at some point, under pressure from co-legislators, remains to be seen. But in the meantime, companies will be preparing for the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (ECGT): “Member States have until March 27th to transpose the directive, which bans generic green and ‘climate neutral’ claims, into national law. Six months later, in September, the rules will come into force…So regardless of what happens with the Green Claims Directive, there will be some strengthening around the environmental claims that companies can make starting this year,” says Squeo.*”
The purpose of the Green Transition Directive is to ensure that:
“before buying a product, consumers will receive better and more harmonised information on its durability and reparability. Consumers will also be better informed about their legal guarantee rights. In addition, vague environmental claims will be forbidden, meaning that companies will no longer be able to declare that they are ‘green’ or ‘environmentally friendly’ if they cannot demonstrate that they are. It will also be forbidden to display unreliable voluntary sustainability logos. In addition, unfair commercial practices linked to early obsolescence will be prohibited, such as false claims about the sustainability of an asset.”
As a result of the Empowering Consumers Directive, additional banned commercial practices have been added to the list of those already prohibited under existing Directives, for example:
• displaying a sustainability label that is not established by a public authority, or is not based on a certification scheme
• making an environmental claim that is unsubstantiated, or not based on a product’s entire life cycle
• not informing consumers about a feature of a product designed to limit its durability, or claiming that its durability is limited when it is not, and
• inducing consumers into replacing goods earlier than technically necessary.
• advertising benefits to consumers that are considered common practice in that market
• making an environmental claim without “clear, objective, publicly available and verifiable commitments”,
3. The EU Consumer Protection Cooperation Network
As with all EU directives, regulations, interpretation and enforcement are implemented through transposition in national legislation. The EU’s Consumer Protection Cooperation Network is “a network of competent public enforcers to tackle these issues in a coordinated manner.”
The strap line on the webpage for the CTC Network says will deliver “Sharper teeth for EU consumer protection”. In November 2025 the CTC Network secured agreement from 21 European airlines to: “cease claiming that the CO₂ emissions of a specific flight could be neutralised, offset, or directly reduced by consumer financial contributions to climate protection projects or for the use of alternative aviation fuels.” In particular, “CO₂ emissions of a specific flight cannot be neutralised, offset, or directly reduced by contributions to climate protection projects or alternative aviation fuels … Refraining from using vague green language or terminology” and “Providing sufficient scientific evidence and information to support claims of improved environmental impact.” National consumer protection authorities will monitor the implementation of the commitments and enforce the changes. Full details can be accessed here,
4. The UK Green Claims Code
In the UK the Competition and Markets Authority has published a Green Claims Code which regulates what advertisers can claim to UK consumers.
Adherence to the Green Claims Code is monitored by the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) which uses AI to review thousands of adverts and website pages. It has recently found that the majority of travel agents (99%) are not making environmental claims in their adverts. Its AI process reviewed 362,000 unique adverts, and found that only 319 ads made sustainability claims. But, of those, only 33% appeared likely to be compliant with the rules, while 67% were likely non-compliant.
Common non-compliant claims reported by the ASA included:
In an article published in the UK TTG the ASA is encouraging the sector not to ‘greenhush’:
“With people increasingly focused on how environmentally friendly the products or services they’re buying are, ensuring sustainability claims are clear and accurate is essential to ensure people are not misled – especially in higher emission sectors like travel,”
“Informative and accurate environmental claims help consumers make better, more responsible choices. They also highlight the steps organisations are taking to reduce their impact, an important part of moving toward a low-carbon future.”
The UK Advertising Standards Authority provides free detailed and comprehensive advice to travel marketers. It also provides a Climate Change and the Environment e-learning course Published 04/12/25 it will be updated if the green claims directive is resurrected.
5. Example Local Regulations and Judgements
The legal firm CMS provides a very useful compendium of local regulations and judgments in selected EU and non-EU jurisdictions covering thirteen jurisdictions.
6. And what’s happening to Corporate Sustainability Reporting?
In December 2025 a provisional agreement was reached between the EU Council and Parliament to simplify sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements to boost EU competitiveness. This “simplifies the directives on corporate sustainability reporting (CSRD) and corporate sustainability due diligence (CS3D) by reducing the reporting burden and limiting the trickle-down effect of obligations on smaller companies.”
The “… provisional agreement increases the thresholds to 5,000 employees and €1.5 billion net turnover. The co-legislators considered that such large companies have the biggest influence on their value chain and are best equipped to make a positive impact and absorb the costs and burdens of due diligence processes.” more
Real Economy Progress reports 14/02/26 that “At the time of writing, 12 companies had published their second CSRD reports, and seven of those had reduced the number of positive impacts they claimed their businesses had on sustainability objectives.”
6. ATTA What Does EU’s New Directive Mean for African Tourism Businesses?
ATTA’s advice is clear on the European Union’s Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive
“The directive is designed to stop vague or unsubstantiated environmental claims. Under the new rules, companies can no longer rely on broad language like “eco-friendly”, “green”, or “sustainable” unless those claims are supported by clear, verifiable evidence. Any claims about carbon neutrality, offsets, or reduced impact must be traceable and specific.” I would add that ecotourism is similarly vague.
“If an organisation sells to EU-based tour operators, hotel groups, travel platforms, NGOs, or donors, their sustainability data feeds into their public claims. The moment a lodge, conservancy, or project appears in EU-facing marketing or reporting, that data becomes part of their legal and reputational risk. Weak or unverifiable data might mean paused contracts, dropped suppliers, or failed due diligence.”
ATTA concludes:
“African tourism businesses already do some of the most operationally grounded sustainability work in the world. Organisations simply need to prove their efforts by having the data on hand to back up their claims.“
7. And how does industry certification fit into all of this?
Travalyst launched an initiative in January to drive industry-wide clarity on sustainability certifications ahead of the EU Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (ECGT). As they explained
“The world of sustainability certifications for accommodation has long been complex, with varying rigour throughout. This has created challenges for certification schemes, accommodation providers and platforms seeking to distribute and display clear and compliant sustainability schemes and labels to consumers.”
“Travalyst is supporting relevant industry stakeholders* to prepare for the requirements of the ECGT before its implementation by providing a mechanism for schemes to declare their compliance with the regulation. … “Travalyst will, in time, provide an open-access list of schemes that have declared compliance, hosted on its centralised Data Hub.”
8. In the UK the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is using bad PR “as an enforcement tool”, according to leading industry lawyer Rhys Griffiths. The CMA has been issuing warning letters to businesses telling them they may be out of compliance, “then announcing this publicly”.“They know consumer-facing businesses don’t want negative publicity, so they ‘name and shame’,” he said.Griffiths told the recent Abta Travel Law Seminar in London: “PR is being used as an enforcement tool.” “A lot of companies have document destruction policies. You need to make sure you don’t routinely destroy documents the CMA may request.” more
To understand more about industry certifications please also check out our post here For and Against Certification
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