Guidelines for Corporate Anti-Greenwashing Claims
The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS) releases a set of guidelines for corporate anti-greenwashing claims, aimed at providing guidance for companies to issue claims.
The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore believes that this guide can help avoid corporate greenwashing and provide consumers with clear, accurate, and sufficient information.
Related Post: UK Financial Conduct Authority Releases Guidance on Anti-Greenwashing Rule
Introduction to Guidelines for Corporate Anti-Greenwashing Claims
This guide is based on the Consumer Protection Fair Trading Act, which was issued in 2003, and focuses on how to reduce unfair trade practices. The guide provides the following principles for enterprises:
- Claims should be true and accurate: Companies need to ensure that claims are truthful, accurate, and up-to-date, and cannot mislead consumers. If certain goals cannot be reasonably achieved in the claim, the relevant claim should not be made. Companies should not expand their product quality, benefits, or needs, and should regularly review claims to ensure their continued compliance.
- Claims should be clear and easily understood: Companies need to clearly and explicitly display information and consider the environment in which consumers are located. If companies use self-declaration labels, they need to explain their internal evaluation process to consumers and prepare relevant documents. When using professional terminology, companies need to provide plain language explanations to reduce misleading.
- Claims should be meaningful: Companies need to provide meaningful and helpful claims to consumers. When the claim involves a comparison between the product and competitors’ products, it is necessary to conduct a like-for-like comparison of these products to reduce the competitive advantage generated by unfair comparisons.
- Claims should be accompanied by material information: Companies need to provide sufficient and material information in the claim, so that consumers can obtain it in a timely and significant manner. If the product involves certification, it is necessary to choose a third-party certification program with good reputation, transparency, and strict standards. When the enterprise declares that its product can achieve certain results, it needs to provide key information to achieve these results and cannot let consumers mistakenly believe that certain results have been achieved but have not been achieved.
- Claims should be supportable by evidence: Companies need to provide valid and credible evidence, including assessments, certifications, peer reviews, or investigations conducted using scientific methods and objective approaches. When announcing their goals in the claim, enterprises need to provide reliable evidence to prove their goals and the steps they have taken to achieve them. When calculating or predicting, internationally recognized evaluation or accounting methods need to be used.
Reference:
Guide on Quality-Related Claims
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