Today, as anticipated, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued its updated Green Guides for 2012.
At a briefing on the Green Guides held today in New York City, the FTC’s, Jim Kohm, explained that the FTC applied some basic principles when reviewing the thousands of public comments on the draft Green Guides, which were published more than two years ago. These principles included:
1. The FTC is not an environmental enforcement or policy setting agency. The purpose off the Green Guides is to help consumers get truthful information about products and services and to help make sure that that market for these products and services is a fair playing field for marketers.
2. The final guides generally follow the draft guides, unless comments provided sound evidence supporting a change is warranted and made specific recommendations for modifications supported by the evidence provided.
3. The FTC tried to harmonize the Green Guides with International environmental marketing standards, but frequently could not do so because international standards often have the purpose of promoting green choices, which is not a statutory directive for the FTC.
This third principle is likely to be a source of frustration for some stakeholders following the FTC’s work on environmental claims.
As expected, the FTC’s final Green Guides remained silent on sustainable, natural, and organic claims.
We will soon post further analysis on various claims covered by the Green Guides, including new guidance on claims involving: general environmental benefits, recyclable products, recycled content, carbon offsets, biodegradable, compostable, renewable materials, renewable energy, and others.
