The headline directive is stalled. A separate, binding rule isn't.
The EU's proposed Green Claims Directive would have required environmental marketing claims to be substantiated with scientific evidence and independently verified before use. It cleared the European Parliament (March 2024) and Council (June 2024), and trilogue negotiations began in early 2025 — but by mid-2025, the European Commission signaled it was considering withdrawing the proposal entirely after a dispute over its scope, and Italy formally withdrew its support [1]. As of this writing, its final status remains unresolved.
That's a meaningful update to keep in mind if you've seen this Directive cited elsewhere as settled law — it isn't yet, and may not become law in its current form at all.
Separately, and unaffected by the Green Claims Directive's uncertain fate, the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive was adopted in March 2024 and takes legal effect on September 27, 2026 [1]. It already imposes real anti-greenwashing obligations across the EU, independent of whatever happens to the broader Green Claims proposal.
The practical takeaway for a claims policy written to "the stricter of the applicable regimes": don't treat the Green Claims Directive's specific substantiation mechanics as settled EU law yet, but do treat the general anti-greenwashing direction of EU policy — binding through the ECGT regardless of the Green Claims Directive's outcome — as the actual floor to design against.