That cute little green badge your marketing team designed?

In the EU, it may soon become a compliance problem.

From 27 September 2026, new EU consumer-protection rules will limit how companies use sustainability claims and labels.

That includes a very practical change:

If a business creates its own sustainability label without a recognised certification scheme or public-authority backing, that label may no longer be allowed.

So the issue is no longer just:

“Can we say this product is green?”

It is increasingly:

“Can we prove it in the way the market now requires?”

For many companies, sustainability messaging has been treated as a branding question.

But in practice, it is becoming a market-access question.

Because once regulators start tightening the rules around claims like “eco,” “green,” or “sustainable,” packaging, product pages and marketing materials all become part of the compliance conversation.

And that means the risk is not only reputational.

It is operational.

A label that worked yesterday may need legal review tomorrow.

A claim that sounded harmless may suddenly need evidence, structure and certification behind it.

This is a good reminder that market access is not always about tariffs, licences or customs.

Sometimes it starts with a leaf icon on the packaging.

#MarketAccess #EU #Sustainability #Compliance #GreenClaims #InternationalExpansion #Expio