GovWire

Timetable

Investigation launch

29 July 2022: The Competition and Markets Authority has opened an investigation into 3 fashion brands to scrutinise their green claims.

The CMA is concerned about the way the firms products are being marketed to customers as eco-friendly.

The investigation will scrutinise environmental claims made by ASOS, Boohoo and George at Asda about their fashion products, including clothing, footwear, and accessories. Several issues will be examined, including whether:

• the statements and language used by the businesses are too broad and vague, and may create the impression that clothing collections such as the Responsible edit from ASOS, Boohoos current Ready for the Future range, and George for Good are more environmentally sustainable than they actually are
• the criteria used by some of these businesses to decide which products to include in these collections may be lower than customers might reasonably expect from their descriptions and overall presentation for example, some products may contain as little as 20% recycled fabric
• some items have been included in these collections when they do not meet the criteria used by the business
• there is a lack of information provided to customers about products included in any of the companies eco ranges, such as missing information about what the fabric is made from
• any statements made by the companies about fabric accreditation schemes and standards are potentially misleading, such as a lack of clarity as to whether the accreditation applies to particular products or to the businesses wider practices

At this early stage, the CMA has not reached a view as to whether there have been any breaches of consumer protection law.

The CMAs wider review of the fashion sector and potentially misleading environmental claims in other sectors will continue as the CMA will also consider whether to open further investigations.

• Press release: ASOS, Boohoo and Asda investigated over fashion green claims (29.7.22)

We want to hear from you

The CMA continues to want to hear from you if you have experience of the types of issues covered in the green claims code. Details of your experience can be shared with the CMA by email to:misleadinggreenclaims@cma.gov.uk

Before doing so, please read more on providing information to us.

Compliance review commences

10 January 2022: The CMA has commenced a review of environmental claims in the fashion retail sector. This follows publication of its guidance on making environmental claims on goods and services. The CMA plans to look at other sectors in due course. However, where there is evidence of breaches of consumer law outside of the fashion retail sector, the CMA may choose to take appropriate action before the review of fashion retail has completed.

It is estimated that UK consumers spend 54 billion annually on clothing and footwear, and this is expected to continue to grow in the coming years. According to some estimates, fashion is responsible for between 2 and 8% of global carbon emissions. More and more people are trying to choose more environmentally sustainable options when buying clothes. More and more fashion businesses are making environmental claims.

This includes claims that individual items of clothing are sustainable or better for the environment, claims about use of recycled materials in new clothing and entire ranges of clothing within stores being branded as sustainable.

The CMAs review will examine environmental claims across the fashion retail sector in the UK to determine whether or not businesses are complying with consumer protection law. Where we identify businesses which we think are greenwashing we will take appropriate action.

Final guidance published

20 September 2021: The CMA has published its final guidance for businesses to help them understand and comply with their existing obligations under consumer law.

Alongside the guidance, the CMA has also published a video for businesses and short guide, all of which can be found on our Green Claims Code pages.

• Consumer law guidance for businesses (20.9.21)
• Green claims code microsite
• Press notice:Greenwashing: CMA puts businesses on notice (20.9.21)
• Consultation response (20.9.21)

In January 2022, the CMA will begin a review of compliance with consumer law. Should we find evidence of non-compliance we will consider whether further action such as enforcement is necessary. Where there is evidence of breaches of consumer law, we may also take appropriate action even before the formal review begins.

If you have any information or concerns that you think would be of interest to us while we carry out our compliance monitoring, please let us know using the misleadinggreenclaims@cma.gov.uk e-mail address. The information provided will help us to focus our compliance monitoring and any potential enforcement action that might be necessary. Please note however that we are unlikely to be able to act on every individual complaint that we receive.

Please be aware that the CMA will use any information you provide in performing its statutory functions, and in accordance with the restrictions on disclosure in Part 9 Enterprise Act 2002.

In particular, information you provide to us will be used to provide intelligence that helps inform our compliance review. It may also be used to help us in consider or take enforcement action, should that be appropriate.

To the extent any information you provide contains personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) or domestic legislation like the Data Protection Act 2018, there is important information you should know about how we will use your information, this is available in the document below:

Key information on data protection

Detail of Outcome

The CMA has now published its final guidance for businesses making environmental claims to help them understand and comply with their existing obligations under consumer law. Alongside the guidance, the CMA has also published a video for businesses and short guide, all of which can be found on our Green Claims Code pages.

In January 2022 the CMA will begin a review of compliance with consumer law. Should we find evidence of non-compliance we will consider whether further action such as enforcement is necessary. We may also take action earlier where there is evidence that consumer law is being broken.

Draft consumer protection law guidance and consultation

21 May 2021: The CMA has issued, for consultation, draft consumer protection law guidance for all businesses making environmental claims. The purpose of the guidance is to help those businesses to understand and comply with their existing obligations under consumer protection law.

In addition to the draft guidance and consultation document, the CMA is publishing a literature review, which summarises the many surveys, articles and research reports that we have considered while developing the draft guidance.

The CMA invites interested parties to respond to the questions posed in the consultation document no later than 5pm on Friday 16 July 2021.

The CMA plans to publish the final version of its consumer protection law guidance in August / September 2021. Alongside this, the CMA will also issue a short guide for consumers to help them to understand the sort of questions they should be asking themselves when deciding whether or not they should trust environmental claims being made by businesses.

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