ACM publishes for consultation its draft guidelines regarding sustainability claims
The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has published for public consultation the draft version of its ‘Guidelines regarding sustainability claims’. These guidelines contain rules of thumb and practical examples that can help businesses when phrasing sustainability claims.
Consumers and companies increasingly want to contribute towards a world that is livable in the long term. That is why they find it increasingly important to make sustainable choices. More and more often, consumers wish to know what the sustainability impact is of the products and services that they purchase, and they take that into consideration in their purchasing decisions. However, they consider claims about sustainability often to be unreliable. Companies must be honest about sustainability. They can only use clear, truthful, and relevant sustainability claims. ACM has drawn up five rules of thumb for businesses to help them when phrasing their sustainability claims:
- Make clear what sustainability benefit the product offers
- Substantiate your sustainability claims with facts, and keep them up-to-date
- Comparisons with other products, services, or companies must be fair
- Be honest and specific about your company’s efforts with regard to sustainability
- Make sure that visual claims and labels are useful to consumers, not confusing
Would you like to share your opinion?
ACM invites you to share your opinions about the draft guidelines. Our questions are:
- Do you find the guidelines clear and useful?
- Do you have any indications or reports regarding dishonest or unclear sustainability claims? And if so, what are these?
You can share your opinions until 20 October 2020. You can send them to %20consultatie [at] acm [punt] nl (consultatie@acm.n)l. Following the public consultation, ACM will finalize the guidelines.