The Chamber of Deputies is debating a government bill amending the Consumer Protection Act and, at the same time, the Civil Code, as Chamber of Deputies Print No. 53. Among other things, the amendment transposes the requirements of Directive (EU) 2024/825 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 February 2024, amending Directives 2005/29/EC and 2011/83/EU as regards empowering consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and through better information. This amendment has a proposed split effective date, mostly as early as 31 July 2026, and for selected parts on 27 September 2026.
In general, this amendment introduces greater consumer protection in the area of information about the environmental burden associated with the production of goods and the provision of services, and expands the scope of unfair commercial practices by sellers to include the making of unsubstantiated claims in this area. It therefore prohibits so-called greenwashing, i.e. labelling goods and services as environmentally friendly without such claims being substantiated in any way. The amendment also introduces, for example, an obligation for sellers to provide additional information about the products sold, such as their lifespan, and expands consumers’ rights related to sellers’ guarantees.
The amendment introduces the concept of an “environmental claim”, which it defines very broadly. This means any statement by a seller that a given product and its production have no impact on the environment, or even that their impact on the environment is positive, or that it is lower than the impact of another product or service in the same category, or that this impact has improved over time. In practice, this therefore includes labelling products as, for example, a “sustainable product” or an “environmentally friendly product”, but it may also include, for example, a green leaf symbol on packaging or the information that “80% of the packaging comes from recycled plastics”. Sellers and service providers will have to be able to reliably substantiate all such environmental claims. If these are general claims, such as the first three examples mentioned above, they will fall into the category of a “generic environmental claim”, for which the requirement that the seller be able to substantiate the information will be stricter than for specific claims, such as claims concerning the percentage of recycled materials used.
In the area of environmental claims, the amendment further introduces stricter variants of labelling products and services as environmentally friendly or sustainable, although these are not direct subcategories of environmental claims.
This includes, for example, a “certification scheme”, which will impose a requirement for a transparent and publicly available system of verification by an independent third party, the purpose of which is to confirm that a particular product, service, process or business activity meets the requirements for the use of the relevant sustainability label. Such a scheme must be open to all sellers and providers on fair and non-discriminatory terms and must include rules for addressing any non-compliance, including the possibility of withdrawing or suspending the use of the label in question. Compliance with the requirements of the scheme must be checked through an objective procedure by an independent and competent third party.
Another stricter variant is a “recognised excellent environmental performance”, a qualified and legally recognised standard of environmental performance of a product, service or activity. Such performance must correspond in particular to the requirements under Regulation (EC) No. 66/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the EU Ecolabel, national or regional Type I ecolabelling schemes under ČSN EN ISO 14024, or the highest level of environmental performance established by other European Union legislation. In practice, this performance serves as a strong evidentiary basis for the use of generic environmental claims, for example that a product is “ecological” or “environmentally friendly”.
If sellers of goods and providers of services fail to comply with the requirements for labelling their products and services in accordance with the requirements specified above, they may be engaging in unfair commercial practices and may face related sanctions. Supervision over compliance with these obligations will primarily be carried out by the Czech Trade Inspection Authority. This amendment is also related to other planned legislative changes described in our Legal Alert, which can be found here.
Download Legal Update 05/2026 here.