Today the CMA has published a public consultation on draft Guidance on misleading environmental claims.
We have worked closely with the CMA over recent months in this process, lending our knowledge and expertise of regulating green claims in ads, including sharing our own principles and rules around environmental claims. We welcome the CMA’s draft Guidance for environmental claims, including in advertising, and believe they will help consumers make better informed decisions about products and services.
The CMA’s draft Guidance aligns well with our own work to encourage greener advertising. We’ve been regulating environmental claims for decades; our interventions are important, not only because they prevent consumers from being misled, but also because they create a level playing field in which businesses are encouraged to improve their green credentials in order to take advantage of consumers’ increasing eagerness to “go green”.
To go even further, this year we’ve launched our own Climate Change and the Environment project.
We’ll be taking stock of how effective our rules are in governing environmental claims. This will include us reviewing how regulators and legislators, at home and abroad, are upping their efforts in this area including through their development of new rules that tackle advertising that is misleading or harmful to the environment. We’ll be proactive in tackling new and emerging misleading green claims, including by working in partnership with the CMA to tackle concerns. We will also further develop the advice and guidance we offer advertisers so they can make responsible and accurate environmental claims with a high level of certainty and confidence that they’re sticking to the rules and treating consumers fairly.
We also support Ad Net Zero, the Advertising Association’s commitment to minimising the industry’s own carbon footprint in the creation of ads and will be practising what we preach with our own commitment to reduce the ASA’s carbon footprint to net zero by or before 2030.
We know how important it is to consumers that the ads they see and hear are truthful and don’t exaggerate or mislead about the green credentials of a product or service. We look forward to contributing further to the CMA’s continued work in this vitally important area and will continue our work in tackling ads that break the rules.More on
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