Green claims under scrutiny in Italy: Stricter rules and rising litigation risks for businesses

1. Green Claims under the scrutiny of Italian courts

The so-called greenwashing – a deceptive marketing activity aimed at presenting products or companies as environmentally friendly, while their environmental impact is negative – is not new and Italian courts have already had the chance to sanction it.

Just to mention one of the most recent rulings, in July 25, 2025, the Court of Milan, when called upon to rule on a class action brought by a consumers’ association, set out a structured approach for the assessment of environmental claims (or “green claims”, as the Tribunal itself called them), aligning domestic practice with the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (among others, C-646/22 and C-139/22).

The Court of Milan stated that greenwashing is a misleading practice, i.e. it may distort the economic behavior of the “average consumer”, meaning a consumer who is reasonably well-informed and observant. In particular, the Court found several sustainability-related statements in the case examined to be misleading, including claims referring to:

• high environmental and social standards;
• “zero impact” supply chains;
• general commitments to sustainability and transparency.

These statements were not supported by adequate and verifiable evidence.

The Milan Court clarified that participation in a private certification system (such as the “B Corp network”) does not constitute conclusive evidence of environmental performance, as such systems merely refer to a private standard and do not necessarily guarantee objective, measurable or publicly recognized compliance.

This approach significantly raises the evidentiary threshold to demonstrate that environmental communications are based on objective and verifiable data. Misleading or untrue green claims have also been sanctioned several times by the Italian Competition Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, “AGCM”) across different sectors. For instance, in a decision of July 29, 2025, the AGCM imposed a fine of €1 million on Infinite Styles Services Co. Ltd, the company responsible for managing Shein’s product trading websites in Europe, for the use of misleading and/or deceptive green claims in the promotion and sale of clothing products. Another AGCM’s decision, adopted on January 21, 2025 against General Logistics Systems (GLS), resulted in a fine of €8 million due to the company’s ambiguous and unsubstantiated use of environmental claims, in particular by blurring the distinction between emission reduction and emission offsetting, thereby suggesting that its services had a lower environmental impact than was actually the case.

These judgements and sanctioning measures are aligned with and anticipate the rules set out under the European Union’s Directive 2024/825 (“empowering consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and through better information”), which has now been implemented in Italy with Legislative Decree No. 30/2026 (the “Greenwashing Decree”).

2. The Greenwashing Decree: what is new?

Italy has now specific legislation on greenwashing, implementing Directive (EU) 2024/825.

The Greenwashing Decree – entered into force on March 24, 2026 and applicable from September 26, 2026 – systematically integrates environmental claims into the existing framework on unfair commercial practices, thereby expanding both the scope and the intensity of scrutiny, by (i) introducing a statutory definition of “environmental claim” (Article 18 of the Italian Consumer Code); (ii) expanding the list of misleading commercial practices under Articles 21-23 of the Italian Consumer Code, in order to include new practices relating to environmental claims and (iii) reinforcing the existing enforcement framework under Article 27 of the Italian Consumer Code, with direct implications on both administrative proceedings and civil litigation.

The Greenwashing Decree introduces binding definitions within Article 18 of the Italian Consumer Code, including:

• “Environmental claim”: Any message or representation (not mandatory under EU law) used in a commercial context – including visual or symbolic elements, that conveys, expressly or implicitly, that a product, a category of products, a brand or an economic operator has a positive or neutral impact on the environment, or it is less or lower impact on the environment compared with other products, categories of products, brands or an economic operators or it has improved its environmental impact in the course of time.
• “Generic environmental claim”: Any oral or written environmental statement expressed in broad or nonspecific terms which is not incorporated into a sustainability label and is not accompanied by clear and sufficiently explanatory information clarifying its meaning.
• “Sustainability label”: Any voluntary sign, mark or certification, whether issued by a public or private body, intended to distinguish and promote a product, a process or a business based on its environmental or social characteristics.
• “Certification system”: A system under which an independent third party verifies compliance with predefined criteria, enabling the use of a corresponding sustainability label in relation to a product, process or business activity, and those preconditions and requirements are publicly available and compliant with the following:
  • the system is open to any economic operator available to comply with its and requirements;
  • systems requirements are set by owner of the same after having heard the relevant stakeholders;
  • the system establishes the procedures to address non-compliance, including providing for the suspension or revocation of the sustainability label;
  • an objective procedure, handled by a third independent party, is set for the monitoring of  economic operators compliance with system requirements.

The Greenwashing Decree broadens the range of commercial practices that may be qualified as misleading or potentially misleading, by targeting several recurring patterns in environmental marketing.

Potentially misleading practices, i.e. those practices which are likely to mislead the average consumer or to cause him to take a decision that he would not otherwise have taken, they include:

• any practice potentially misleading with regard to the main characteristics of the product, such as its availability, benefits, risks, performance, composition, environmental or social characteristics, accessories, aspects relating to circularity, such as durability, reparability or recyclability, after-sales customer support and the handling of complaints, the method and date of manufacture or provision of the service, delivery, fitness for purpose, uses, quantity, description, geographical or commercial origin, or the results that may be expected from its use, or the results and key characteristics of tests and checks carried out on the product;
• any environmental claim relating to future environmental performance without including clear, objective, publicly available and verifiable commitments set out in a detailed and realistic implementation plan that includes measurable targets with specific deadlines, as well as other relevant elements necessary to support its implementation, such as the allocation of resources, and which is periodically verified by an independent third party, whose conclusions are made available to consumers;
• any advertising that presents as benefits to consumers factors that are irrelevant and do not stem from the characteristics of the product or the business.

These practices may sanctioned only where they would likely mislead the average consumer, based on a case-by-case assessment.

Statutory misleading practices, i.e. those practices which are always prohibited, regardless of their likelihood of influencing the average consumer, they are as follows:

• displaying a sustainability label that is not based on a certification system or has not been established by public authorities;
• making a generic environmental claim for which the professional is unable to demonstrate the recognized excellence of the environmental performance relevant to that claim;
• make an environmental claim concerning the product as a whole or the economic operator’s business as a whole, while it relates only to a specific aspect of the product or a specific element of the economic operator’s business;
• claiming, on the basis of greenhouse gas emissions offsetting, that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive impact on the environment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions;
• presenting the compliance with legal requirements applicable in the EU for all products in each category as if they were a distinctive feature of the economic operator’s offer;
• failing to inform the consumer that a particular software update will adversely affect the functioning of goods that include digital elements, or the use of digital content or digital services;
• presenting a software update as essential when it merely improves certain functional features;
• any commercial communication relating to a good that contains a feature designed to limit its durability, even though information about that feature and its effects on the durability of the good is available to the economic operator;
• falsely claiming that, under normal conditions of use, the product has a certain lifespan in terms of time or intensity of use;
• presenting the item as repairable when it is not;
• inducing the consumer to replace or replenish consumable parts of the product sooner than required by technical reasons;
• failing to disclose that the performance of a product will be impaired by the use of consumables, spare parts or accessories not supplied by the original manufacturer or falsely claim that such impairment will occur.

3. Information obligations and product-related transparency

Alongside these prohibitions, the reform strengthens pre-contractual information obligations, requiring traders to provide consumers with clear and accessible information before the purchase. In particular, traders must inform consumers about:

• the existence of the legal guarantee of conformity for goods and its main features, including the minimum duration of two years;
• manufacturer’s offer of a commercial guarantee of durability at no extra cost;
• the legal guarantee of conformity applying to digital content and digital services;
• for goods comprising digital elements, for digital content and for digital services, where the manufacturer or supplier makes the information available to the economic operator, the minimum period during which the manufacturer or supplier provides software updates;
• the goods repairability index or, if impossible, information about availability, estimated cost and ordering procedure for spare parts.

Failure to provide the above information constitutes an unfair commercial practice, punishable by the AGCM, and it may also lead to civil litigation started by consumers or consumers’ associations.

4. Public and private enforcement

Enforcement continues to be governed by Article 27 of the Italian Consumer Code, which empowers AGCM to investigate and sanction unfair commercial practices, including through cease-and-desist orders and the imposition of administrative fines of up to €10 million, depending on the seriousness and extension of the infringement as well as on the company’s turnover.

Beyond public enforcement, the reform increases exposure to civil litigation on multiple fronts.

First, companies may face claims brought by consumers, including actions grounded in misleading commercial practices and, potentially, collective proceedings or class actions. Italy has recently reformed class actions, with Legislative Decree 28/2023, significantly broadening the scope of class action proceedings, now covering collective damage stemming from defective products, unfair contractual terms, data breaches, environmental issues and climate change.

Second, where environmental claims imply acts of unfair competition under Article 2598, paragraph 3 of the Italian Civil Code (in the form of misleading advertising), or trademarks,  violations, companies may face actions by competitors before Civil Courts, including by means of urgent precautionary proceedings.

Third, the new framework is expected to have a direct impact on contractual relationships. Sustainability-related statements, such as those concerning environmental performance, traceability of supply chains, carbon footprint or compliance with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards, are increasingly embedded in commercial transactions, including supply agreements, procurement contracts, technology arrangements and M&A transactions, where they may form part of the economic rationale of the deal.

Businesses are required to prepare in view of the application, starting from September 26, 2026, of the rules, including by:

• assessing existing environmental statements and consumers pre-contractual information compliance with the new restrictions, especially in connection with the (quite frequent) generic green claims;
• documenting methodologies, assumptions, and data sources to prove that green claims are properly substantiated;
• selecting and appointing accredited certifiers;
• updating contracts with suppliers with appropriate safeguards, including (i) obligation to provide data and certifications; (ii) audit rights; (iii) obligations to cooperate in case of investigations; (iv) appropriate representation and warranties specifically addressing environmental information; (v) termination rights, etc.;
• preparing for regulatory investigations and collective actions.

*Valeria Kiseleva (trainee) contributed to this article.