53.3% of environmental claims across the EU turned out to be vague, misleading, or flat-out made up. There's now a law against that.

Since September 27 2026, the EmpCo Directive, officially Directive (EU) 2024/825, applies across the entire EU. Not as an announcement, not as "coming soon". As law, with fines of up to 6% of your annual turnover.

We've been tracking this for months. Our EmpCo guide was downloaded by dozens of companies wanting to check their communication before it was too late. Now it's too late to keep waiting.

What's banned now, exactly

Twelve practices. Six categories. No more gray zone.

A few examples we keep running into with clients:

"Climate neutral" or "carbon neutral" claims based on offsetting, without your own reduction efforts. Banned.

A self-designed sustainability label, without a recognized certification scheme behind it. Banned.

Vague terms like "eco-friendly", "green" or "sustainable" without substantiation. Banned.

Claims about your whole company when you actually mean one product or one department. Banned.

That figure comes from the European Commission itself. It's exactly why this directive exists.

Why "we're doing what we can" isn't enough

Most companies we talk to are genuinely doing something about sustainability. That's not the problem.

The problem is the claim on the website, the packaging, the brochure. Not what you do, but what you say you do, and whether you can prove it with data.

From now on, every sustainability claim needs to be specific, demonstrable, and independently verifiable. "We're working on sustainability" doesn't hold up. "We cut our CO2 emissions per unit by 18% between 2023 and 2025, verified by an independent party" does.

What you can do this week

Don't start with the legal text. Start with your own communication.

List every sustainability claim you currently use: website, packaging, social media, proposals.

For each claim, ask: can I prove this with a number, a certificate, or an independent source?

Drop or rewrite what doesn't hold up.

That's essentially what our EmpCo guide walks you through. Twelve practices, a checklist, and the steps other companies have already taken. Send an e-mail to hello@resultx.ai to receive a copy.

Not sure your own claims hold up? Book a free 30-minute call. We'll go through your communication together, claim by claim.