Background
Sustainability has taken center stage in fashion brand communications. Terms such as ‘eco-friendly’, ‘conscious’ and ‘responsible’ have become commonplace in marketing discourse, reflecting consumers’ growing appreciation of environmental and ethical criteria. However, this trend has brought with it a significant legal risk: greenwashing.
Greenwashing occurs when a brand communicates environmental practices or sustainability attributes in a misleading, vague or insufficiently substantiated manner, which is likely to mislead consumers. The loose use of environmental claims undermines consumer confidence and justifies an increasingly stringent regulatory response.
Greenwashing and its legal consequences
Greenwashing is not a harmless reaction to consumers’ environmental concerns. It is a phenomenon that can give rise to legal liability and has been receiving increasing attention from regulators and supervisory authorities.
In recent years, several brands have been the subject of lawsuits, regulatory investigations or administrative measures related to environmental claims. In the case of H&M, legal action was taken against its “Conscious” line, alleging that certain sustainability claims were not sufficiently substantiated. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ordered the withdrawal of advertisements from brands such as Nike, Lacoste, and Superdry, on the grounds that they did not adequately substantiate the environmental benefits advertised. Furthermore, the Italian competition authority (AGCM) imposed a fine of €1 million on Shein for environmental claims considered generic or vague.
These cases demonstrate that generic or inaccurate claims can lead to litigation, administrative sanctions and significant reputational damage, reinforcing the need for properly substantiated sustainable communication.
The new European framework: the Digital Product Passport
In this context, the European Union is developing a new regulatory framework aimed at enhancing transparency and combating greenwashing, providing for the mandatory introduction of the Digital Product Passport (DPP) from 2027.
The DPP is the result of a European regulatory effort to improve the sustainability of products throughout their life cycle by providing credible and reliable information to consumers and businesses. It is part of the European Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan and is based on Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, “Ecodesign for Sustainable Products” (“ESPR“), which came into force in 2024. The ESPR gives the European Commission the power to define specific sustainability criteria, performance requirements and information, and is the legal basis for making the DPP a tool for ensuring compliance and traceability of these criteria. The European Commission will then adopt delegated and implementing acts under the ESPR between 2027 and 2028, covering textiles – clothing – first, in addition to electronics, furniture, detergents, paints and metals.
In the case of clothing, the DPP will function as a digital identity card for each item, accessible via QR codes or equivalent means, bringing together standardized and verifiable information on the composition of materials, the production chain, resource consumption and environmental impact throughout the product’s life cycle. Sustainability claims will thus no longer be based exclusively on marketing messages but will require objective and accessible factual support.
This regime represents a significant change in the legal framework for sustainability. By making environmental information structured and verifiable, sustainability becomes a genuine obligation. For companies, this implies the need to strengthen internal data collection and validation mechanisms, as well as to align commercial communication with effective compliance practices.
It is important to note that these requirements do not only apply to companies established in the European Union. All textile products placed on the European market, regardless of where they are produced, will have to comply with the digital passport requirements. The traceability of raw materials and consistent data collection throughout the production chain require manufacturers and suppliers, including those based in third countries, to adapt their processes in a timely manner.
Although particularly demanding in a sector characterized by long and fragmented production chains, this new framework may also represent an opportunity to structure more robust internal processes in line with a European standard of transparency.
Framework in light of consumer law
The introduction of the digital passport is a logical development of the structuring principles of European consumer law, in particular the duties of transparency and truthfulness of information. When sustainability is used as a relevant factor in the purchase decision, environmental claims are no longer merely promotional and become part of the economic basis for consumer consent.
The DPP helps to reduce the information asymmetry between businesses and consumers, allowing for objective verification of whether the sustainability attributes claimed correspond to the reality of the product. In this way, it reinforces requirements already inherent in consumer law, preventing situations of misleading consumers through unfounded environmental claims.
Advertising and competition
In the field of advertising and competition, the DPP introduces an objective parameter for controlling environmental claims used in commercial communication. The existence of structured and verifiable information allows advertising claims to be directly compared with underlying technical data, reducing the scope for vague or unsubstantiated promotional messages.
This development contributes to fairer competition by limiting differentiation strategies based on unprovable environmental claims and enabling more effective oversight by the competent authorities.
Compliance and ESG
From a business perspective, the digital passport strengthens the link between sustainability, compliance and ESG policies. The obligation to collect and make available reliable data throughout the production chain implies a strengthening of due diligence obligations, particularly in the control of suppliers and production processes.
Furthermore, although the DPP should not collect users’ personal data, its digital implementation requires compliance with the GDPR and strict cybersecurity standards, ensuring that the information systems and platforms that store and transmit this data are protected against unauthorized access, manipulation or privacy breaches and that they guarantee security by default. Thus, sustainability is no longer merely a reputational issue, but has become a legally relevant commitment, subject to proof and oversight. Legal monitoring plays a central role, not only in responding to regulatory requirements, but also in a preventive approach to risk management.
Despite the costs associated with adaptation, compliance with this new framework may provide an opportunity to strengthen the credibility of business practices and align them with the European Union’s transparency requirements.
Conclusion
The introduction of the mandatory Digital Product Passport for clothing sold in the European Union is a significant milestone in the legal approach to greenwashing. By requiring environmental claims to be supported by structured and verifiable information, the European Union consolidates sustainability as a legally relevant element in consumer relations and business practices, moving it away from a purely declarative or reputational logic.
By imposing requirements for traceability, consistency, and documentary evidence, the digital passport significantly limits the use of vague or unfounded environmental claims and strengthens corporate accountability mechanisms. This new standard of transparency not only contributes to more effective consumer protection and fairer competition, but also projects sustainability as a central axis of corporate compliance in the fashion industry.
by Ricardo Cardoso, Carolina Ribeiro Santos and Madalena Baião, Practice Area – Sports, Fashion and Entertainment
