Sustainable consumption

The new Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition  will ensure that consumers are provided with better information at the point of sale on the durability and reparability of goods and the consumer’s legal guarantee rights. It will also strengthen consumer protection rules against greenwashing and early obsolescence practices.  

The new Directive amends two existing consumer law Directives: the Consumer Rights Directive and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. It will make EU horizonal consumer law better fit for the green transition and will support the changes needed in consumer behaviour to achieve climate and environmental objectives under the European Green Deal. The proposal was announced in the New Consumer Agenda and the Circular Economy Action Plan.  

Next steps:

• By 27 September 2025, the Commission shall, by means of implementing acts, specify the design and content the harmonised label on commercial guarantees of durability offered by producers and of the harmonised notice on the legal guarantee.
• By 27 March 2026, Member States shall transpose the Directive. 
• From 27 September 2026, the Directive shall enter into application.

Further information:

Commission proposal of 30 March 2022, with supporting documents 

Over the last decades, rising consumption around the globe has increased pressure on the environment, climate change and created greater competition for resources.  The demand for resources makes our industry and society also dependent on imports and vulnerable to high prices and market volatility.  Several EU policies aim to address these challenges and promote a more sustainable, resource-efficient and circular economy, in particular via the implementation of the EU Circular Economy Action Plan.

Integrating the consumer perspective into the circular economy is key. This is linked to elements such as the optimal lifetime and durability of products and the easy repair, upgrade, disassemble and recycling of products. It is also linked to giving products a second life by selling them in the second hand market. Increasing the utilisation rate of products can also be achieved through renting/leasing models. It is also related to the provision of clear, credible and relevant information to consumers to allow them to make informed purchasing choices and contribute to this transition.  DG Justice and Consumers commissioned an EU wide behavioural study to further look into the consumer angle of this area.

The objective of this study was to provide policy-relevant insights on the consumers' engagement in the circular economy. The study involved several research tasks including literature review in all EU countries as well as third countries, stakeholder interviews, consumer focus groups in 4 EU countries, an online consumer survey in 12 EU countries and an online behavioural experiment in 6 EU countries.

Overall, all strands of research found that consumers were generally willing to engage in circular economy practices. But actual engagement was rather low. While a majority of consumers repair products (64%), a substantial share have not repaired products in the past (36%), and/or have no experience renting/leasing or buying second hand products (~90%).

A reason for this low engagement in circular economy practices could be that consumers lack information regarding product durability and reparability as well as the lack of sufficiently developed markets (e.g. for second hand products, renting, leasing or sharing services etc.).

In the behavioural experiment the provision of such information was found to be highly effective at shifting purchasing decisions towards products with greater durability and reparability. The survey and experiment also found that repair decisions are easily disrupted if arranging repair requires effort.

The findings indicate that there is a large potential to close the gap between consumers’ willingness to engage and their actual engagement. The study makes several policy recommendations to further enhance consumers' engagement in the circular economy.