Green Claims Checker
Edition: CS-Cart & Multi-Vendor · Latest version: 1.0.0 · Compatible with: CS-Cart & Multi-Vendor 4.17.2 – 4.21.x, PHP 7.4 – 8.3 · Changelog: view
Finds environmental claims in your product texts that you may need to review under Directive (EU) 2024/825: generic claims such as “eco-friendly” or “climate friendly”, climate claims that rest on carbon offsetting such as “climate neutral”, self-made sustainability badges, whole-product claims that may concern only a part, and claims about future performance. Each finding shows where it is, the rule it relates to, a suggestion for neutral wording and its review state. On Multi-Vendor it can warn vendors, send their products for review or block them until the text is fixed.
A helper, not legal advice. Green Claims Checker searches for words and phrases. It cannot judge whether a claim is substantiated, whether a specification is “clear and prominent”, or whether a label meets the certification scheme criteria. It does not make your store compliant, and a product without findings can still contain a misleading claim. Check the results with your legal adviser.
Why it matters
Section titled “Why it matters”Directive (EU) 2024/825 of 28 February 2024 (“empowering consumers for the green transition”, OJ L, 2024/825, 6.3.2024) amends the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC (UCPD). Member States had to adopt their national measures by 27 March 2026 and apply them from 27 September 2026 (Article 4). The UCPD covers business-to-consumer commercial practices, which includes product pages, listings and marketing texts.
Among the practices the Directive adds to Annex I of the UCPD (the list of practices that are unfair in all circumstances) are these environmental ones (it also adds points 23d to 23j on software updates, durability, repair and consumables, which this add-on does not check):
| Point | Practice (Annex I, as amended) |
|---|---|
| 2a | Displaying a sustainability label that is not based on a certification scheme or not established by public authorities. |
| 4a | Making a generic environmental claim for which the trader is not able to demonstrate recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to the claim. |
| 4b | Making an environmental claim about the entire product or the trader’s entire business when it concerns only a certain aspect of the product or a specific activity of the trader’s business. |
| 4c | Claiming, based on the offsetting of greenhouse gas emissions, that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive impact on the environment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. |
| 10a | Presenting requirements imposed by law on all products within the relevant product category on the Union market as a distinctive feature of the trader’s offer. |
It also adds to Article 6(2) UCPD (misleading actions, judged case by case) environmental claims about future environmental performance without clear, objective, publicly available and verifiable commitments in a detailed and realistic implementation plan that an independent third-party expert verifies regularly (point (d)).
The definitions in Article 2 UCPD (new points (o) to (s)) matter for the review:
- An environmental claim is any non-mandatory message or representation, in any form (text, images, labels, brand or product names), stating or implying that a product, brand or trader has a positive or zero impact on the environment, is less damaging than others, or has improved its impact over time.
- A generic environmental claim is an environmental claim in written or oral form that is not on a sustainability label and whose specification is not provided in clear and prominent terms on the same medium. “Climate-friendly packaging” is generic; “100 % of energy used to produce this packaging comes from renewable sources” is specific (recital 9).
- Recognised excellent environmental performance means compliance with the EU Ecolabel (Regulation (EC) No 66/2010), with an officially recognised EN ISO 14024 type I ecolabelling scheme, or top environmental performance under other Union law (for example energy label class A, recital 10).
- A sustainability label is a voluntary trust mark or quality mark, public or private, that promotes a product, process or business by its environmental or social characteristics. A certification scheme is a third-party verification scheme with public terms that meets four criteria (open access, requirements developed with experts and stakeholders, procedures for non-compliance, independent monitoring).
The examples in the add-on’s default list come from the recitals of the Directive: “environmentally friendly”, “eco-friendly”, “green”, “nature’s friend”, “ecological”, “environmentally correct”, “climate friendly”, “gentle on the environment”, “carbon friendly”, “energy efficient”, “biodegradable”, “biobased” (recital 9), “conscious”, “sustainable”, “responsible” (recital 10), and “climate neutral”, “CO2 neutral certified”, “carbon positive”, “climate net zero”, “climate compensated”, “reduced climate impact”, “limited CO2 footprint” (recital 12).
Note: the separate proposal for a “Green Claims Directive” has not been adopted. This add-on refers only to Directive (EU) 2024/825 and the UCPD as amended by it.
What it does
Section titled “What it does”- Finds claims in every product text. Product name, short and full description, promo text, page title, meta description and keywords, search words, product feature values (and the names of checked checkbox features), tags and SEO names, in every active language.
- Explains each finding. Severity (high, medium, low), the rule it relates to (UCPD Annex I points 2a, 4a, 4b, 4c, 10a or Article 6(2)(d)), the matched words in context and a suggestion for neutral, specific wording.
- Spots a nearby specification. When the same sentence contains a figure (“made with 70 % recycled aluminium”), the finding is one level lower and marked “figure nearby”, because the claim may be specific rather than generic. You decide.
- Allow-list with evidence. Labels established by public authorities or certification schemes (the EU Ecolabel is pre-filled) are shown as “Recognised” with the licence or registration number and validity date you keep; context phrases such as “green tea” or “dark green” stop false matches.
- Review and fix. Accept findings with evidence (for example the place where the specification is shown, or an LCA report), open them again, or replace the matched words in bulk with neutral wording: a preview shows every change before it is saved, only the reported occurrences change (never “green tea”, “eco mode”, a recognised label or a part of a hyphenated word), the products are saved like an edit in the product editor, and the last replacement can be undone. An acceptance applies to the reviewed wording: when the text around the term changes, the finding opens again.
- Report. Dashboard by rule, term, field and vendor; filterable findings list; CSV export of the filtered findings with the legal reference, context, suggestion and evidence.
- Multi-Vendor moderation. Warn vendors, require an administrator review, or block activation until the text is fixed; the “Vendor submissions” queue with Approve and Reject (the vendor sees your note).
- Term lists you control. About 100 English default terms in six rule categories, applied to texts in every language; add terms for your languages, change severities and suggestions, import and export CSV, restore the defaults.
- No storefront impact. Checks run when products are saved, in batches from Scan now, and by cron. Nothing runs on storefront page loads and nothing is shown to customers.
What it does not do
Section titled “What it does not do”- It does not decide whether a claim is lawful, substantiated or misleading, and it gives no legal advice.
- It does not read images, logos, colours or PDF documents. Implicit claims made by images (recital 9) need a manual check.
- It does not verify certificates, labels or certification schemes; the evidence you enter is a note for your own records.
- It does not check category pages, CMS pages, blog posts or e-mails in version 1.0 (products only).
- In CS-Cart Ultimate it checks the product descriptions; storefront-specific descriptions of shared products (set per storefront) are not checked in 1.0.
- It does not refer to the proposed Green Claims Directive, which has not been adopted.
How it differs from our other compliance add-ons
Section titled “How it differs from our other compliance add-ons”| Green Claims Checker | Catalog Quality Audit | GPSR Product Safety & EU Guarantee Labels | EU Energy Label & EPREL Display | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Law | Directive (EU) 2024/825 (UCPD Annex I 2a, 4a, 4b, 4c; Art. 6(2)(d)) | none (catalog completeness and SEO) | General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 | Energy labelling Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 |
| What it looks at | The wording of environmental claims and labels | Missing images, descriptions, prices, SEO fields, duplicates | Manufacturer and EU responsible person data, safety warnings | Energy class and product information sheet |
| Output | Findings with legal reference, evidence review, vendor moderation | Quality score and bulk fixes | Information shown on the product page | Label next to the price |
| Shown to customers | Nothing | Nothing | Yes | Yes |