In a market where sustainability and environmental awareness are increasingly decisive factors in consumers' purchasing decisions, practices associated with so-called greenwashing — that is, the use of marketing strategies designed to lead consumers to believe that a product and/or a business's activities have positive effects on the environment or are more sustainable than they actually are — have long been the subject of growing regulatory scrutiny. Over the years, there has been a growing need for harmonised European-level legislation capable of regulating such practices, ensuring that consumers receive clear, accurate and comparable information.
It is against this backdrop that Directive (EU) 2024/825, known as "Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition", was adopted, with the aim of strengthening consumer protection against unfair commercial practices of an environmental nature. Legislative Decree No. 30 of 20 February 2026, which came into force on 24 March 2026, transposed the provisions of the Directive into Italian law, setting 27 September 2026 as the deadline by which economic operators must comply with the new requirements.
This measure has a significant impact on the Consumer Code (Codice del Consumo), introducing into Article 18(1) the definitions of key terms — including "environmental claim", "generic environmental claim", "sustainability label" and "certification schemes" — which are essential for interpreting the new provisions, which expand the scope of misleading commercial practices, misleading omissions and practices deemed misleading in all cases.
Specifically, Legislative Decree No. 30/2026 has made the following amendments:
(i) Extension of Article 21(1) of the Consumer Code. The provision introduces an explicit reference not only to the traditional characteristics of products, but also to their environmental and social characteristics and aspects of circularity, such as durability, reparability and recyclability. It follows that any practice likely to mislead the consumer on these points is classified as misleading.
(ii) New categories under Article 21(2) of the Consumer Code. The categories of "environmental claims regarding future performance without an implementation plan" (letter b-ter) and "advertising of irrelevant benefits" (letter b-quater) are introduced. Environmental claims relating to future performance that are not supported by a defined and independently verifiable plan are therefore considered misleading, as is the promotion of characteristics common to all products in the same category that are unduly presented as distinctive from an ecological perspective.
(iii) Strengthening of the rules on misleading omissions (Article 22 of the Consumer Code). The new paragraph 5-terof Article 22 of the Consumer Code provides that, in product comparison services where environmental, social or circularity-related information is provided, the following are deemed essential — with the consequence that their omission constitutes an offence: the comparison method used, the products and suppliers involved, and the measures put in place for updating the information.
(iv) Expansion of the list of practices that are misleading in all cases (Article 23 of the Consumer Code). The most significant change concerns the expansion of Article 23 of the Consumer Code, which lists commercial practices considered misleading in all cases. These include, amongst other things, the use of sustainability labels not based on recognised certifications and generic environmental claims that cannot be substantiated.
Enforcement of the legislation is entrusted to the Italian Competition and Market Authority (AGCM), which has been granted specific sanctioning powers and has always been particularly active in combating so-called greenwashing.
Conclusions
Legislative Decree No. 30/2026 marks a turning point in the regulation of corporate environmental communications, introducing specific obligations for those who make such claims. With the compliance deadline set for 27 September 2026, companies are called upon to act promptly, reviewing their communication strategies in light of the new regulatory framework.
At an operational level, it is essential that companies conduct an audit of the environmental claims currently in use, ensuring that each is supported by verifiable evidence and, where necessary, by recognised certifications. It is also essential to establish a permanent interdisciplinary task force — involving the legal, marketing, compliance and sustainability functions — responsible for the prior approval of content and the continuous monitoring of communications.
