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The Sufficient Accuracy of Green Claims Used in Marketing

Abstract

The article discusses green claims used in marketing, and how such claims can be made with sufficient accuracy as required by EU law. The article is based on the author’s Bachelor’s thesis, which examines the factors that affect the assessment of the matter. The article is limited to discussing about marketing communications and other communications given to the consumer in support of the environmental claim and accompanied by space restrictions imposed by the media used. The research methods used in this article are legal dogmatics and comparative law, the former focusing on the interpretation of EU law in the Finnish legal system and the latter focusing on the Swedish Patent and Market Court. Legal dogmatics is used to assess how the question of accuracy is more specifically formed according to current law. Meanwhile, comparative law is used to find support for the legal guidelines that can be interpreted from the Finnish Consumer Ombudsman’s rulings. After the introduction, the article defines the terms green claim and average consumer as the basis for the assessment of green claims. It defines when green claims can be considered to be prohibited greenwashing. Greenwashing is not a concept defined in legislation or other sources of law, but a generic word used in research to signify possibly illegal conduct. Next, the article looks into the key marketing regulations concerning the subject. Lastly, the article concentrates on the authority guidelines and rulings by the Finnish and Swedish Consumer Ombudsman. The article concludes that if the green claim is found to be ambiguous, additional information about its veracity should be located in a “close proximity” to the claim. On the basis of the recent rulings, it is unclear what “close proximity” means. When assessing the distance, the means of communication and the nature of marketing should be considered. Therefore, it should be taken into consideration whether the marketing is about a specific consumer good, or rather about general image marketing. However, in a digital setting, it is clear that the information cannot be located several “clicks” away from the claim.