ACEA — 2025-06-25
News from Brussels
The European Commission pledged to deliver regulatory simplification for the automotive sector as part of its Automotive Industrial Action Plan, the withdrawal of the Green Claims Directive is an essential step in that direction.
European automotive manufacturers support a harmonised framework to combat greenwashing and ensure transparency for consumers. However, the current proposal for the Green Claims Directive is not the solution. Therefore, we fully support the current discussions between EU institutions regarding the withdrawal of the proposal.
The existing legal framework (the EU Commission Guidelines on Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, the Empowerment Directive [2024/825]) already provides a robust framework to prevent greenwashing. The current proposal is unworkable in practice. It demands an unrealistic level of real-time scientific tracking, adds excessive reporting obligations on top of other existing sustainability reporting, and relies on a verification system that does not yet exist. These disproportionate requirements will not create clarity for consumers but will deter companies from communicating their sustainability efforts altogether, leading to greenhushing, not transparency.
In its March 2025 Industrial Action Plan, the European Commission pledged to deliver regulatory simplification for the automotive sector—a critical step toward restoring Europe’s industrial competitiveness. Withdrawing the Green Claims Directive would be a strong and necessary first move toward that promise.