Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade join calls to maintain EU laws tackling ‘greenwashing’

The Rainforest Alliance certification group and Fairtrade are among key signatories urging the EU Commission to hold firm on its Green Claims Directive, designed to combat ‘Greenwashing’ and deliver mandatory standards for companies making environmental performance statements, writes Neill Barston.

Both organisations, which are set to play their part in our upcoming Q&A on the future of the confectionery sector at our World Confectionery Conference on 11 September in Brussels, have expressed alarm at what has been widely perceived as a key roadblock to ensuring the policy’s delivery. 

Consequently, a total of 30 organisations, including the Rainforest Alliance, and the Belgian-based Fairtrade Advocacy Office, have sent a letter to the Danish Prime Minister  Mette Frederiksen and Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke, during the country’s presidency of the EU, to ensure that proposed key legislation linked to the wider Green Deal frameworks developed to ensure transparency, accountability of operating, as well as assurances to consumers that they are not being ‘Greenwashed’ with misleading information made regarding companies’ environmental performance.

The laws were put forward in the wake of studies that have revealed a total of 53% of business’s green claims presently offer vague or unfounded information, with 40% of such statements failing to provide tangible supporting evidence.

In response, the latest letter signed by Rainforest Alliance and brings together a coalition of businesses, advertising groups and certification bodies, calling on the EU to fulfil the Green Claims Directive, which the EU Commission briefly withdrew last month, citing concerns over the potential impact on small businesses. It has since stated that it intends to proceed with the legislation pending sufficient support – leaving its status hanging in the balance.

As reported by Confectionery Production, there are also parallels with another key piece of linked EU legislation on the EUDR frameworks aiming to deliver mandatory performance goals for companies with Europe sourcing commodities including cocoa, palm oil and soy, which are widely used within the industry.

This has faced pushback from right wing political groups within the EU, as well as some industry lobbying from the likes of Mondelez, calling for a further delay to the agreed proposals, which were already supposed to have started at the beginning of this year, and are time-tabled to now begin from the end of December 2025.

This has now been placed in doubt following a non-binding EU parliamentary vote within the past fortnight that has sought for further amendments to the proposals – further eroding their intended purpose of creating a level playing field for all businesses and actors in the supply chain, including farmers in key West African markets of Ghana and Ivory coast operating vital cocoa supplies.

As far as the Green Claims Directive is concerned, it has attracted a wide range of support, with the latest call to the EU also being backed by  the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, civil society groups including  We Mean Business Coalition, Carbon Market Watch, European Environmental Bureau, ISEAL Alliance, Environmental Coalition on Standards an the Fairtrade Advocacy Office adding to the chorus of concern.

Speaking on the directive, Katie-Scarlett Wetherall, Lawyer at ClientEarth, which among the civil society groups signing the letter to the Danish PM, commented: “Today, half of environmental claims on the market are either misleading or misuse methods of substantiation.

 “The Green Claims Directive sets clear rules for how companies can back up what they say. This letter urges action to ensure fair competition for companies that do the right thing and protects consumers from empty promises.”

The Directive would establish robust new rules requiring companies to properly substantiate environmental claims and for more complex claims to undergo external verification. These requirements build on existing EU consumer protection law.

Instead of adding red tape, the Directive would reduce legal uncertainty for businesses. Many companies already spend large sums on legal advice to manage greenwashing risks because national enforcement varies widely. Clear EU-wide rules would give businesses a single standard to follow, making compliance easier and more predictable.

Signatories of the letter include business associations such as Ecopreneur (which represents over 5,000 sustainable SMEs across the EU); sustainability-focused companies like Back Market and advertising industry bodies such as the Conscious Advertising Network, Creatives for Climate, Good-Loop and Unitmode.

• Registration remains open for the World Confectionery conference via our dedicated website at confectioneryconference.com