From 27 September 2026, "eco-friendly" is no longer enough.The ECGT Directive is now Italian law

Think about the last product you bought with some kind of green promise on the packaging. "Sustainable". "Reduced impact". "Eco-friendly". How much did you believe it? And more to the point - did that company actually have the data to back it up?

This is exactly the question Europe has decided to stop ignoring. With EU Directive 2024/825 - known as the ECGT, Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition - and its transposition into Italian law via Legislative Decree No. 30 of 20 February 2026, the rules on corporate environmental communications are changing in a meaningful way.

The date to mark in your calendar is 27 September 2026: from that day, the new provisions become fully enforceable. Six months to get ready. Not little, but not a lot either - especially if there is real work to do.

Greenwashing is everywhere - and the numbers prove it

Before understanding what changes, it is worth understanding why intervention was needed. The European Commission analysed a broad sample of environmental claims circulating in the EU market, and the picture that emerged is rather uncomfortable.

53%

of green claims were vague,misleading or unsubstantiated

40%

of declarations had no supporting evidence at all

Source: European Commission, DG Environment - Green Claims (official page)

There is more. The EU market currently features 230 sustainability labels and 100 green energy labels, with wildly varying levels of reliability. In this environment, it is practically impossible for consumers - or B2B buyers - to tell who is genuinely doing something from who is simply communicating well.

The Directive's answer is straightforward: sustainability can be communicated, but it must be measurable, verifiable and documented. Full stop.

Who it applies to - and the answer might surprise you

The first instinct of many businesses, when a new environmental regulation comes along, is: "this is for large companies, not us". This time, that instinct is wrong.

The Directive applies to any business making commercial communications to consumers in the EU, regardless of size or sector. If your website, packaging or social media includes any environmental claim - even a single word like "green" or "sustainable" - you are within scope.

The perimeter is deliberately wide: not just advertising campaigns, but also product pages, commercial presentations, LinkedIn posts, offer emails. Essentially anything that communicates something about the environmental impact of your company or its products.

What actually changes: the rules in plain language

Rather than a list of abstract prohibitions, here is how the rules play out in practice.

You can no longer use self-created green labels. If you want a sustainability badge on your product, it must be based on a recognised independent certification - not something you designed in-house for the packaging.

You cannot call a product "sustainable" if it only is in part. If your coffee capsules are compostable but the supply chain has a high environmental impact, you can communicate the compostability of the capsules - not the eco-sustainability of the product as a whole.

You cannot claim climate neutrality based on offsets alone. Buying carbon credits to compensate emissions is not enough: the rules require that emissions have been actually reduced. Compensation can only come after genuine reduction.

You cannot present a legal requirement as a competitive advantage. If regulations already require a certain environmental characteristic for all products in your category, you cannot communicate it as your own distinctive strength.

The principle is simple: if you can prove it with data, you can say it. If you cannot prove it, you cannot say it.

The penalties: not a moment to run the numbers afterwards

Companies that do not comply will answer to AGCM (Italy's Competition and Market Authority), the body responsible for enforcing the new rules.

Up to €10 million

or 4% of annual turnover for the most serious violations

Source: D.Lgs. 146/2007 as amended - Minimum penalty: €5,000 · In extreme cases: business suspension for up to 30 days

These are not hypothetical scenarios. AGCM has already demonstrated its willingness to act: in summer 2025, Shein received a €1 million fine for environmental claims promising emissions reductions that were directly contradicted by the company's own data. A clear signal of what enforcement looks like in practice.

Watch out for the opposite risk: greenhushing

There is an understandable but mistaken reaction some businesses may have to this Directive: simply stop communicating anything about sustainability to avoid the risk. This phenomenon already has a name - greenhushing - and it comes with its own set of problems.

Companies that stay silent on their environmental initiatives forgo a real competitive advantage. Customers and B2B buyers cannot distinguish them from companies doing nothing. And companies doing nothing face no market disadvantage.

The ECGT Directive is not a brake on ESG communication - it is a filter. If you have the data, you can speak. In fact, in a market where greenwashing is being progressively eliminated, those who communicate with solid data gain a credibility that was previously impossible to build definitively.

Want to find out whether your environmental communications are already aligned with the ECGT Directive? 

→ Get in touch

The dates to remember

Italy's transposition has already happened: Legislative Decree No. 30/2026 was published in the Official Gazette on 9 March 2026 and entered into force on 24 March 2026. Companies have until 27 September 2026 to align their communications - a window deliberately designed to allow an orderly transition.

Six months is a reasonable window, but not an abundant one. Especially if you are starting from scratch: auditing existing claims, collecting verifiable data, defining an internal approval process - all of this takes time and resources. Starting now means arriving at September without a rush.

How Kyklos Carbon can help

The foundation that makes a green claim legitimate is always the same: measurable data, recognised methodologies, third-party verification. Whether it is a carbon footprint calculation, a life cycle assessment or a structured sustainability report, without these elements any environmental claim remains exposed.

At Kyklos Carbon, we work precisely at this level - not on surface-level communications, but on the substance that makes them possible:

Carbon footprint calculation (Scope 1, 2 and 3) using internationally recognised methodologies, giving you the numbers that support any climate-related claim.
Sustainability reporting structured to communicate environmental, social and governance impacts transparently and with full documentation.
ESG communication support: turning data and results into accurate, verifiable claims that comply with the new ECGT rules.

If you are working on these topics - or wondering where to start - a conversation costs nothing.

Let's build together the data foundation that makes your environmental communications ECGT-proof.

→ Write to us

Conclusion

The ECGT Directive is not a surprise - it is the logical consequence of years of widespread greenwashing that has eroded consumer trust. Italy's transposition arrives at a moment when AGCM is already active on unfair commercial practices in the environmental space, as the cases already sanctioned demonstrate.

The six months until 27 September 2026 are not a grace period. They are an opportunity: to bring order to your communications, build a solid process and - if the data supports it - communicate sustainability with more credibility than before.

Those who arrive at September with their data in order won't just have avoided a fine. They will have built a competitive advantage.