{"id":15474,"date":"2026-04-10T08:48:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gulliksson.se\/?p=15474"},"modified":"2026-04-10T08:48:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:48:06","slug":"stricter-requirements-on-greenwashing-and-social-washing-what-should-companies-consider-going-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gulliksson.se\/en\/stricter-requirements-on-greenwashing-and-social-washing-what-should-companies-consider-going-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Stricter Requirements on Greenwashing and Social Washing \u2013 What Should Companies Consider Going Forward?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The requirements governing how companies may communicate environmental and social claims are being progressively tightened. Greenwashing and social washing are coming increasingly into focus, and new Swedish legislation is forthcoming. For companies, this development entails higher demands for careful consideration and documentation in advertising and other marketing communications in order to avoid being found guilty of unfair marketing practices.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Greenwashing refers to the use of advertising or other marketing communications to convey a misleading impression of a product\u2019s environmental impact or environmental benefits, which may deceive consumers. Similarly, social washing involves misleading claims relating to other sustainability aspects and social characteristics, for example concerning working conditions and human rights.<\/p>\n

These types of misleading claims are currently addressed primarily through more general marketing law rules and principles contained in the Swedish Marketing Act. In practice, this means that environmental and sustainability claims are assessed on a case-by-case basis with regard to their accuracy, relevance, and supporting documentation. The Patent and Market Courts draw some guidance from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Advertising and Marketing Communications Code, but the area largely lacks specific and detailed statutory provisions.<\/p>\n

EU Directive (EU) 2024\/825 of 28 February 2024, the so\u2011called Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition<\/em> Directive, aims to further tighten the regulatory framework and specify which types of claims are to be prohibited. The directive is to be transposed into national law by the Member States during 2026.<\/p>\n

Swedish implementation is underway through the government inquiry SOU 2025:124 Measures for More Sustainable Consumption<\/em>. The inquiry proposes amendments to the Marketing Act that explicitly target various types of misleading claims concerning environmental and social characteristics. The proposals also cover claims relating to future environmental performance and comparison services that rank products based on sustainability criteria.<\/p>\n

An even more far-reaching directive, the so\u2011called Green Claims Directive, is also under discussion but is currently paused at EU level. Further tightening of the rules can therefore be expected beyond the amendments proposed in the ongoing Swedish inquiry.<\/p>\n

For companies, it is therefore wise to already review how environmental and sustainability aspects are communicated and to ensure that all claims are relevant, properly substantiated, and verifiable. Additional guidance can be expected as the legislative process progresses and the amendments to the Marketing Act are implemented. At present, a large number of consultation responses are under review.<\/p>\n

Preventive efforts are crucial, no company wants to be accused of greenwashing or social washing. Please feel free to contact me<\/a> or someone on our team<\/a> if you would like to know more about what is important to consider when advertising and marketing communications include environmental and sustainability claims, both under the current regulatory framework and in light of anticipated forthcoming rules.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The requirements governing how companies may communicate environmental and social claims are being progressively tightened. Greenwashing and social washing are coming increasingly into focus, and new Swedish legislation is forthcoming. For companies, this development entails higher demands for careful consideration and documentation in advertising and other marketing communications in order to avoid being found guilty… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":15461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-en"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gulliksson.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gulliksson.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gulliksson.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gulliksson.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gulliksson.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gulliksson.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15475,"href":"https:\/\/www.gulliksson.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15474\/revisions\/15475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gulliksson.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gulliksson.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gulliksson.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gulliksson.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}