How ‘Green’ is your product?

By Ramona Livera

Traders operating in Cyprus must comply by 27th September 2026 with the new rules governing commercial communications featuring environmental claims and characteristics displayed on their products. Commercial communications (including but not limited to advertising and marketing directly linked with the promotion, sale or supply of products to consumers), particularly those conveyed through brands and product labels that contain unclear, irrelevant, or unreliable information regarding environmental attributes, will be prohibited, as they may be considered unfair commercial practices, under the draft law, expected to be enacted in March 2026, namely the Consumer Protection (Amending) (No. 2) Law of 2025 (“Law”).

The Law transposes the “EU Directive 2024/825 on empowering consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and through better information” otherwise known as the (“EmpCo Directive”).

The legislation forms part of the EU’s broader initiative to combat greenwashing and improve consumer information. It strengthens existing unfair commercial practices rules by specifically targeting environmental claims used in marketing and branding.

The Law aims to empower consumers to make informed purchasing decisions and to prevent them from being misled by generic environmental claims displayed on products such as (“eco-friendly” “environmentally friendly” “Green” “ecological” “climate friendly” “biobased” “organic” “plant-based ingredients”) otherwise known as (“greenwashing’) where these are not comprehensible, unfair and unreliable.

Similarly, misleading information about the environmental characteristics of products, such as “contains 75 per cent post-consumer recycled plastic”, “energy star”, “EU Ecolabel” may fall within the scope of the Law where such product characteristics are unclear, inaccurate or unreliable and which may mislead an average consumer to make a trading decision that it would not otherwise have made should be avoided.

Under the Law, generic environmental claims may be prohibited unless recognised environmental excellence can be demonstrated. Where the environmental claim is clearly specified in prominent terms on the same medium – such as an advertising spot, the product’s packaging or online selling interface – it may not be considered a generic environmental claim.

Accordingly, commercial communication practices which include misleading environmental claims may come under the scrutiny of the Authorities if these are deemed unfair, unreliable and do not enable consumers to choose products that are genuinely better for the environment than competing products.

The Law aims to empower consumers towards a green transition ensuring that consumers can make more informed and environmentally friendly purchasing decisions and protect them from unreliable or misleading environmental claims and practices.

Definition of “environmental claim”

More specifically, the Law introduces a new term and definition of “environmental claim”, which means «any message or image that is not mandatory under Union or national law, in any form, including text, images, graphic or symbolic representations, such as labels, trade names, company names, or product names, in the context of a commercial communication and which states or implies that a product, a product category or a trademark or a trader has a positive or zero impact on the environment or that it is less harmful to the environment than other products, product categories, trademarks, or traders, or has improved its impact over time».

These developments have practical implications for traders, particularly in relation to branding and trademark strategies.

Impact on Traders

The Law clearly encompasses unfair commercial practices in commercial communications by traders through their brands (trademarks) and labels which may mislead consumers regarding the environmental attributes of the product, even if trademarks are protected under intellectual property law.

As such, brand owners must be aware that the Law may impact their businesses where their brands and labels use environmental claims or characteristics which may be deemed as deceptive or misleading.

More specifically, brands and labels that display environmental claims such as:

• sustainability labels used in commercial communications that suggest or create the impression that a product has a positive or neutral impact on the environment, or that it is less harmful than competing products;
• labels indicating that an entire product or a trader’s overall business has an environmental benefit when only a specific aspect of the product or a limited, non-representative activity of the business provides such benefit;
• claims relating to the offsetting of greenhouse gas emissions suggesting that a product, service, or business has a neutral, reduced, or positive environmental impact.

Such practices should generally be avoided, especially where the claims may be misleading, unsubstantiated, or likely to create inaccurate impressions among consumers.

Conclusion

Consequently, traders are advised to revisit their trademark portfolios to ascertain whether their brands and labels contain environmental claims that do not meet the requirements of the Law and to take the necessary steps to minimize the risk of falling within its scope.

Failure to comply with the new rules may expose businesses not only to regulatory scrutiny but also to reputational risks in an increasingly sustainability-conscious market.

Additionally, traders should be aware that, before applying for  trademark registration under the Cyprus Trademarks Law, where  a trademark displays or implies environmental claims that fail to meet the requirements of the Law, registration may be refused or the trademark may be subject to cancellation proceedings by a third party if its use may mislead the public  as to the nature or quality of the goods.

Traders are therefore encouraged to review their marketing materials, product packaging and branding strategies to ensure that any environmental claims are clear, substantiated and compliant with the upcoming requirements.

Ramona Livera is Senior Associate at ELIAS NEOCLEOUS & CO LLC ADVOCATES