Estonia

The Consumer Protection Act amendments introduce definitions including “environmental claim”, “generic environmental claim”, “sustainability label”, “certification scheme” and “software update”, and strengthen the rules on unfair commercial practices. The list of practices considered misleading in all circumstances now includes generic environmental claims without demonstrated recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to the claim, certain misleading practices concerning software updates, and claims based on greenhouse gas emission offsetting that goods have a neutral, reduced or positive environmental impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Separately, the amendments strengthen the rules governing claims about future environmental performance. These require clear, objective, publicly available and verifiable commitments set out in an implementation plan, with measurable and time-bound targets and regular verification by an independent third-party expert whose findings are available to consumers. During the legislative process, the term “administrative authority” was replaced with “public sector authority” in the provision concerning sustainability labels to reflect the broader scope of “public authority” in the Directive.