Implementation in supermarkets

Since 27 September 2026, the EU's EmpCo Directive / ECGT (Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition) has been in force, tightening the requirements for sustainability claims made towards consumers. While the directive itself is limited to B2C communication, countries are implementing it differently, and the practical impact varies accordingly.

In the Netherlands, the interpretation is strictly business-to-consumer. Per our conversation with the ACM, the relevant test is whether a piece of communication counts as a "commercial practice", meaning it has to be sales-promoting, aimed at consumers, and it has to matter where the information is placed and whether it for instance, links through to a product. A statement like "we've set a target to reduce our CO2 emissions by x% by 2030" is fine on its own, as long as it isn't tied to promoting a sale.

As a result, in the Netherlands, it means that a sustainability report generally falls outside EmpCo's scope, since it's a report aimed at investors and companies rather than a commercial practice, though a figure pulled from that report and reused in consumer marketing would fall back under EmpCo. 

Germany is a different story. The German implementation of the directive, through the Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb (UWG), covers every "business act" rather than just commercial communication aimed at consumers. Supermarkets we've spoken to told us they aren't drawing any distinction between audiences at all: social media, corporate websites, and voluntary CSR reporting all have to be EmpCo compliant, regardless of who is meant to be reading it. That broader interpretation is the reason why supermarkets in Germany have taken a lot of information about climate targets and other sustainability related action plans offline as a precaution. For Superlist Germany this has direct consequences: we've decided to postpone the data collection for policy indicators for two months, giving supermarkets time to get their targets validated and published.