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On October 1, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission released its long-awaited revised Environmental Claims Guides, known as the “Green Guides.” The Commission staff adopted many of the approaches it had proposed a year ago, but it also has introduced some brand new concepts, which in this final version could raise serious questions about the Commission’s procedural integrity. Furthermore, the Green Guides suffer from ambivalence toward governmental, international, and scientific standards, which surfaces as a palpable tension between that which is scientifically factual and that which is subject to the misconceptions of the public because of the technical nature of the subject matter.
Continue Reading FTC Releases Revised Environmental Claims Guides: Modifications and Surprises

This post was also written by Alun J. Jones.

On January 6, 2010, the UK’s advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority (the ASA), issued a decision upholding complaints it received against a poster that promoted the Finnish airline, Finnair. The poster featured an image of an Airbus flying above Finland’s coastline and stated, “Be…

The UK Advertising and Standards Agency (ASA) has recently published a report in response to an increase in consumer complaints regarding misleading environmental claims in advertisements. Companies and advertising agencies have been accused of "green washing" advertisements – making environmental claims that are less about saving the planet and more about exploiting consumer concerns. Particularly…

This forum was written by Avv. Felix Hofer.

1. The European Approach

1.1. Up till now the Europe Union did not issue a set of harmonizing principles and rules meant to specifically govern ‘environmental/green marketing’.

The main reason for such approach was not disinterest from the EU’s institutional bodies towards the issue, but probably…