‘Sustainably produced’, ‘environmentally friendly’, ’compostable’. As with anything that should be integral to continued operations, sustainability and ‘green credentials’ have been sold as ‘good for business’, ‘in demand’ and ‘good for the bottom line’. They have therefore become selling points, selling points which can be created, alluded to, and embellished. Women’s rights, workers’ rights, and payment of workers are all utilised in this way, as selling points when true and when not, and the trend for environmental protection claims appears to be no different.

As Fashion Roundtable has covered before, more and more brands are bragging about their ‘green credentials’, how items have been ‘sustainably sourced’ or exaggerating the use, and environmental benefits, of recycled content in clothing. Last year the CMA discovered that 40% of ‘green claims’ made online by fashion brands could be misleading, and the Changing Markets Foundation found of a study of 46 fashion brands that 59% of green claims were unsubstantiated or misleading.

To combat this, last year the Competition and Markets Authority introduced their Green Claims Code to provide guidance to businesses, and consumers, on whether a claim is lawful or not. The 6 key points are:

1. Be truthful and accurate: Businesses must live up to the claims they make about their products, services, brands and activities

2. Be clear and unambiguous: The meaning that a consumer is likely to take from a product’s messaging and the credentials of that product should match

3. Not omit or hide important information: Claims must not prevent someone from making an informed choice because of the information they leave out

4. Only make fair and meaningful comparisons: Any products compared should meet the same needs or be intended for the same purpose

5. Be substantiated: Businesses should be able to back up their claims with robust, credible and up to date evidence

6. Consider the full life cycle of the product: When making claims, businesses must consider the total impact of a product or service. Claims can be misleading where they don’t reflect the overall impact or where they focus on one aspect of it but not another

Now, as of January 14th 2022, the CMA has launched a review of environmental claims in the ‘fashion retail sector’ to ascertain whether fashion retail businesses are compliant with consumer protection law. It is therefore of great interest and importance to understand how this review proceeds and what measures are taken once misconduct is found - currently the CMA has stated that if non-compliance is discovered they “will consider whether further action such as enforcement is necessary” and that when evidence of breaching consumer law is found “may also take appropriate action even before the formal review begins”.

To make sure all claims are covered, they want to hear from you. If you’ve come across a fashion retail business that has made a claim that you aren’t convinced matches their actions and activities - get in touch with them here and read more here about how to provide them with information.

CMA: Greenwashing Investigations and how to provide evidence