France’s green-claims gap leaves businesses between EU rules and old law

New European consumer rules against greenwashing reached their application date on 27 September, but France had not completed national transposition by then. The gap matters for companies revising labels and advertising, and for consumers trying to understand which claims are prohibited today rather than promised for later.

Directive (EU) 2024/825 adds specific unfair-practice rules involving sustainability labels, generic environmental claims, product-wide claims based on only one aspect, and some durability or repairability messages. The European Commission says the directive is intended to give shoppers better information and strengthen protection against greenwashing and early obsolescence.

An EU date does not erase national implementation

The Commission’s September guidance says traders should prepare claims and labels, including on old stock, for the 27 September application date. That is EU-level implementation guidance. A directive still normally requires national legislation to create the domestic rules and enforcement route described in its text.

French lawyer Elodie Mulon reports in Village de la Justice that France missed the transposition deadline and that a bill introduced in February remained before the National Assembly. Her analysis says the directive’s 12 new blacklist practices are not horizontally enforceable against private companies in France without transposition. That is a legal interpretation, not a court judgment on a particular advertisement.

Existing French law still matters

Delay does not create a free zone. The same analysis points to existing French rules on misleading commercial practices, and regulators can continue to examine deceptive environmental marketing under law already in force. Latham & Watkins also advises companies operating across the EU to review labels, generic claims and durability messaging because implementation and exposure vary between member states.

For businesses, the practical course is to document evidence, narrow broad claims and track the French bill rather than rely on the delay. For consumers, a leaf symbol or the word green is not proof of a product’s overall impact. The next concrete milestone is French transposition and guidance from enforcement authorities; until then, existing French law and the EU deadline sit alongside an incomplete domestic update.

Written for WHIF from the linked material. This article does not claim on-the-ground reporting. Our editorial standards.