What is greenwashing?
Greenwashing is the practice of making misleading, exaggerated or unverifiable claims about the environmental credentials of a product, service or business. Phrases such as “carbon neutral”, “eco-friendly” or “one hundred per cent recyclable” deceive consumers when they rest on no measurable data or transparent methodology, and they expose the company to advertising enforcement, unfair competition claims and reputational damage.
Common forms
- Vague generic claims: wording such as “green” or “sustainable” with no identifiable basis.
- Selective presentation: highlighting one positive attribute while concealing the product’s overall environmental impact.
- Unverified labels: logos, certificates and scoring schemes without independent verification.
- Unsubstantiated future pledges: “net zero” promises announced without interim targets or an investment plan.
The legal dimension
In the EU, the directive amendments aimed at empowering consumers for the green transition treat generic environmental claims and sustainability labels lacking independent verification as unfair commercial practices; the Green Claims Directive, which would require environmental claims to be substantiated before publication, remains a proposal whose legislative process is not complete. Frameworks such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the EU Taxonomy narrow the room for greenwashing by tying claims to reportable data. On the finance side, green loan and sustainability-themed product labels face the same substantiation expectations.
Turkish context
In Türkiye, environmental statements are policed by the Advertisement Board under the prohibition of deceptive advertising and unfair commercial practices in the Consumer Protection Law No. 6502; the Board has also published guidance on advertisements containing environmental claims. As against competitors, the unfair competition provisions of the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102 apply: a misleading environmental claim can ground actions for cessation and damages. For companies publishing sustainability reports, inconsistency between the report and marketing copy is a separate source of liability. For startups, the risk concentrates in marketing pages and investor decks whose claims do not match the product’s actual performance.
Do: anchor every environmental claim to measurable data, documentation and a dated methodology, and limit the claim to what the product actually covers. Don’t: use generic “green” wording without evidence, or rely on unverified labels and net zero pledges that lack interim targets.
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