SECTION A OVERVIEW

New legal framework for green claims

Osborne Clarke June 16, 2025

EU/ international news

EASA Policy Newsletter June 2025 Issues Minors, age verification, AI act, Green Claims Directive, ISO digital marketing standard, political advertising

EC, Shein dark practices. Slaughter May 12/6/25 

Green Claims Directive news Politico 

June 23, 2025. Big wobble as Italy pulls 

Fears EU caves to US on tech rules 

Politico June 23, 2025

X Bans Hashtags in Promoted Posts

Social Media Today June 26, 2025

European issues

EU fines Apple €500M, Meta €200M 

Politico April 22, 2025

EU council approves 'stop-the-clock'

Macfarlane's April 24, 2025

EU consumer law plans Lewis Silkin 
Apr 9, 2025. Commissioner report here

GDPR for red tape bonfire within ‘weeks’

Politico April 3, 2025

Omnibus simplification package update

Hogan Lovells April 1, 2025

Flixbus greenwashing case (FR) March 7, 2025

Above relates to DE Fed court decision

Luifthansa 'greenwashing' (EN) Barron's Mar 24, 2025

Higher regional court on neutrality, ambiguity

SKW Schwarz March 12, 2025 (EN)

Wettbewerbszentrale event calendar 2025 (DE)

Cologne Court on sustainability ads transparency 

SKW Schwarz January 13, 2025

European/ international issues

Von der Leyen bonfire of EU’s environmental red tape

Politico Europe. January 29, 2025

Trump orders US to leave WHO. BBC Jan 21, 2025

Zuckerberg urges Trump to stop EU fining US tech

Politico January 11, 2025

EU to re-open, merge CSRD, CS3D & Taxonomy 

REP Nov 20, 2024. Travers Smith here Jan 30, 2025

EC Guidelines on Prohibited AI Practices

Part I. CMS February 7, 2025

International

EASA Policy newsletter Dec 2024 Topics New staffing in EC structures, Polish presidency, In-game marketing, Green Claims, ADR

Legal500's Advertising & Marketing Guide

October 11, 2024. Germany chapter linked

European/ international issues

Easa policy newsletter October 2024

ECJ '30 day' judgement Aldi pricing Sept 24, 2024

Google overturns 1.5 bil fine in EU ad case
AP News Sept 18, 2024. Haas here (FR) Oct 2

New ICC Code September 19, 2024

European/ international issues

Commission's call for evidence on DSA minors protection guidelines; closes 30th Sept 2024

EASA on the above and two calls for tender August 8, 2024

Federal Court of Justice and 'climate neutral' (DE)

From Sustainable Views EN commentary June 28, 2024

Wettbewerbszentrale, who brought the action, here (DE)

European/ international issues 

A new path for Privacy Sandbox on the web July 22, 2024
Google re new third party cookie plans for Chrome. BBC here

EU issues

Privacy Sandbox Update News and Updates

EDPB Opinion On Pay Or OK Consent Models By Large Online Platforms

Ambush marketing: what you need to know ahead of the European summer of sport
Taylor Wessing May 16, 2024
Council Influencer conclusions May 14, 2024

The Greenwashing Directive enters into force: transposition period begins
Liedekerke April 19, 2024

Online Marketing and the Digital Services Act from Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek/ Lex March 14, 2023 

Ties in the German regime with the DSA, in force February 17, 2024. 

EU issues

EASA Policy newsletter March 2024

Topics Finance, influencer marketing, green claims 

Agreement reached on the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive

Clifford Chance March 28, 2024

DSA News Hub - Aktuelles zum Digital Services Act - Update #1

CMS Germany February 15, 2024

Auf Wiedersehen Werbung mit Klimaneutralität? Taylor Wessing Feb 9, 2024 

EU issues

EC Influencer sweep results Feb 14, 2024

EDAA launches new solution to DSA ad transparency requirements Feb 17, 2024

EU issues

EASA Jan 2024 update on GDPR and Cookie Pledge

EASA Jan 2024 update on DSA and DMA 

EASA Jan 2024 update on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition

EASA Jan 2024 update on AVMSD

EU: EDAA Unveils New Advanced Advertising Transparency Programme

EU issues:

EASA update on CPC Influencer activity October 11, 2023

Green Glaims Directive update from EASA October 11, 2023

CJEU Landmark Data Protection Ruling for Online and Behavioural Advertising

William Fry/ Lex September 8, 2023

Proposal for a Directive of The European Parliament and of the Council on Consumer Credits

 In May 2023, IMCO published proposed CCD II on which provisional agreement has been reached. Plenary vote September 2023

Carbon neutrality and environmental neutrality (DE)
Case law report Taylor Wessing August 2, 2023

Courts disagree on 'climate-neutral' (DE)

Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek July 19, 2023

Also on climate neutral Harting/ Lex July 17, 2023 (EN)

Proposal for a Directive on Green Claims. March 22, 2023

European Commission press release on the above here 

Influencer marketing: enforcement time. Reed Smith LLP/ Lex March 6, 2023

Upcoming EU Rules on Green Claims. Covington and Burling LLP/ Lex January 23, 2023

The European Parliament Adopts New Sustainability Reporting Rules. Jones Day November 22, 2022 

Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (above) affects companies with 'substantial business activity in the EU.'

The worst promotion in history: KFC apologises 

November 10, 2022

23/4/22. Big Tech companies to face new EU content rules. This is the news that the 'Trilogue' (consisting of representation from the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament) have reached agreement on the Digital Services Act, 'a landmark piece of legislation that aims to address illegal and harmful content by getting platforms to rapidly take it down.' The Council's press release is here

December 2021 EASA update on the progress of the Digital Services Act is here

UWG and Pricing Ordinance amends; see Germany general rules for details 

The new Telecommunications Act came into force on December 1st, 2021. More here

December 2021 EASA update on the progress of the European Commission Beating Cancer Plan (BECA). The EC plan potentially impacts marketing/ advertising in both the Alcohol category and the Food and Beverages category 

December 2021 EASA update on Empowering the Consumer for the Green Transition. The EC has delayed the tabling of this initiative until 30 March 2022. Their ‘sweep’ results checking sustainability claims are here

https://www.wettbewerbszentrale.de/de/aktuelles/

The Digital Services Act package

EASA's September 2021 update on the DSA here 

And on the Better Internet for Children Strategy (BIK strategy) here

And on environmental claims and the new consumer agenda here

 EU pages on the Farm to Fork strategy here

The EU’s Green Consumption Pledge Initiative focuses on 'non-food or mixed businesses with direct interaction with consumers'

 And complements the EU Code of Conduct for Responsible Food Business and Marketing Practices, in force July 2021 

EU issues: an update on the progress of the Digital Services Act is here, on the Farm to Fork strategy (see below) here, and on 'Green transition' here

The German Advertising Standards Council publishes its revised code of conduct on all forms of commercial communication for foods and beverages 

 which will come into force on 1 June, 2021. See the home page Germany/Food and Soft Drinks for details 

The new Telecommunications Act came into force on December 1st, 2021. More here

Latest – and significant – news on the EU Farm to Fork strategy here; EU pages on the strategy here

In the context of Europe’s ‘Beating Cancer Action Plan’, there will be some impact on self-regulation regarding HFSS food advertising, alcohol advertising and Audiovisual Media Service Directive (AVMDS) provisions on commercial communications, similar to the above ‘Farm to Fork’ implications. This relates to the new clauses introduced by the 2018/1808 Directive

The EU’s Green Consumption Pledge Initiative focuses on “non-food or mixed businesses with direct interaction with consumers”  and complements the EU Code of conduct for responsible business and marketing practices that will focus on the food sector. This is planned for June 2021

And the ‘green sweep’  - an EU review of websites that make environmental claims - finds that ‘in 42% of cases the claims were exaggerated, false or deceptive and could potentially qualify as unfair commercial practices under EU rules. ‘Greenwashing' has increased as consumers increasingly seek to buy environmentally sound products.’

• Update on Higher Court Koblenz /advertisng for e-cigarettes: court finds advertising not to be misleading. Read more here.
• Regional Court Mainz: Wettbewerbszentrale wins court case against an energy supplier because of misleading advertising (misleading tariff comparison). Read more here. 

Wettbewerbszentrale participates in the EU Sweep on greenwashing (together with the German authority (Bundesamt für Justiz) and the German Consumer Association). Read more here.

The German government is planning a new law on various consumer protection issues including Influencer marketing. The January 2021 press release from the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection is here and the draft law is here (DE). The government draft passed Jan 20 2021 by the Federal Cabinet will now be forwarded to the Bundesrat (federal council, representing the 16 states) for comments and, following a counter-statement by the Federal Government, will be forwarded to the German Bundestag (federal parliament, similar to the U.K. House of Commons) for discussion

FOOD: the EU's Farm to Fork strategy (EN) underlines that the Commission "will develop an EU Code of conduct for responsible business and marketing practice accompanied with a monitoring framework. The Code will be developed with all relevant stakeholders" in Q2 2021

01/27/2021 Cologne Higher Regional Court: shopping cart symbol is not sufficient to identify an affiliate link
In a preliminary injunction procedure, the Cologne Higher Regional Court decided that marking an affiliate link on a technology and consumer portal with a shopping cart symbol is not permitted. More here (DE)

The European Commission presented the Digital Services Act (DSA) that proposes a set of new EU wide rules for digital services, including on online advertising. According to the Commission, “the new framework will rebalance the rights and responsibilities of users, intermediary platforms, and public authorities and is based on European values - including the respect of human rights, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law”. The proposal is available here and press release here. The European Parliament and EU Member States will soon start discussing the proposal in the ordinary legislative procedure. In the first week of January, the EU Member States will meet in the margins of the Internal Market Working Party to discuss the proposal

Six public reprimands - advertising council reprimands sexist advertising (DE)

CARS: 07/14/2020. District Court Munich bans “Autopilot” advertising from Tesla
Various advertising statements from Tesla for vehicle assistance functions such as 'Autopilot included', 'Full potential for autonomous driving' or 'By the end of the year: ... auto driving in urban areas' as misleading (Az. 33 O 14041 / 19, not legally binding).

ICAS, EASA and CONARED Statement on the Importance of Responsible Advertising and COVID-19

https://icas.global/icas-easa-and-conared-statement-on-the-importance-of-responsible-advertising-and-covid-19/