Published on: 17 February 2022
Businesscare has released its monthly business bulletin for January 2022, which includes lots of important updates in the law and the regulations that could affect businesses and recommendations to help you stay compliant.
The Bulletin included information on the Green Claims Code, which from January, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will enforce. The code sets out six key principles for businesses to follow when making environmental claims about their goods or services so that they don’t mislead consumers. Businesses should check that their green claims comply.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) governmental department published three separate documents in September 2021, which were:
- Making environmental claims on goods and services
- The Green Claims Code checklist
- Making environmental claims on goods and services: printable version
The guidance has been published with the purpose to help businesses understand and comply with their existing obligations under the consumer protection law when making environmental claims. The guidance explains each of the principles and gives examples of how each of them applies, and more detailed case studies where multiple principles apply. It sets out the legal framework on which these principles are based. The guidance covers areas which the CMA considers most likely to be relevant and more likely to be of concern to enforcement authorities, but does not cover every situation in which an infringement may occur.
The guidance document has been designed to help business, but it is not legal advice. The responsibility for complying with the law remains with the businesses themselves.
The government has created the Green Claims Code – Get your green claims right website, which covers areas like:
- What are green claims?
- Check your green claims
- Green claims quiz
This webpage provides information on the topics mentioned above as well as a short video that helps businesses to know what they need to do to follow the Green Claims Code. As mentioned in the opening paragraphs the CMA set out six key points to check your environmental claims are genuinely green. This stems from the fact that more than ever people are concerned about the environmental impact of the products and services that they buy. Businesses want to be honest with their customers about their green credentials, but it may not always be clear how to do this.
British Marine suggests that you take the time to look at the Green Claims Code: Making environmental claims documents published by the Competition and Markets Authority, which you can find the link to here and that you also view the Green Claims Code – get your green claims right, which can be found here.