Guides
The same Directive, 8 very different enforcement pictures
Directive 2024/825 sets the rules and leaves penalties and procedure to member states. That is where the practical risk lives — in Germany a competitor can have you in court in a fortnight; in Italy the authority acts on its own and the ceiling is €10m.
Risk here means how fast and how likely someone actually acts — a competitor, an authority, a consumer body. It is not the size of the fine, and the two run in opposite directions: Germany is high risk with the lowest statutory ceiling in this list, Italy is medium with the highest.
Germany
Private enforcement by competitors and trade associations is fast, cheap for the claimant and already active — you can be in court long before an authority looks at you.
- Enforcer
- Wettbewerbszentrale, consumer associations and competitors
- Statute
- Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb (UWG), amended to transpose Directive 2024/825.
- Ceiling
- €50,000
France
France banned unqualified carbon-neutrality advertising in 2023, three years ahead of the Directive, and the DGCCRF runs sector sweeps.
- Enforcer
- DGCCRF
- Statute
- Code de la consommation, plus the Loi Climat et Résilience (2021-1104) and Décret 2022-539 on carbon neutrality advertising.
- Ceiling
- €300,000
Netherlands
The ACM published detailed sustainability-claims guidance early and has secured public commitments from large retailers rather than going straight to fines.
- Enforcer
- ACM (Autoriteit Consument & Markt)
- Statute
- Burgerlijk Wetboek Book 6 (unfair commercial practices) implementing the UCPD, amended for Directive 2024/825.
- Ceiling
- €900,000
Spain
Enforcement is split between national and regional authorities, which makes it less predictable rather than less likely.
- Enforcer
- Regional consumer authorities and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs
- Statute
- Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2007 (consumer protection) and Ley 3/1991 de Competencia Desleal, amended for Directive 2024/825.
- Ceiling
- €1,000,000
Italy
The AGCM acts on its own initiative and its fines are among the largest in the EU for unfair commercial practices.
- Enforcer
- AGCM (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato)
- Statute
- Codice del Consumo (D.Lgs. 206/2005), amended to transpose Directive 2024/825.
- Ceiling
- €10,000,000
Estonia
A small market with one central authority and, so far, little published green-claims enforcement. Low observed activity is not low legal risk, and the gap is closing on a known date: the Estonian transposition of Directive (EU) 2024/825 is adopted and enters into force on 27 September 2026 (redaction 103072026030), adding statutory definitions of 'keskkonnaväide' and 'üldine keskkonnaväide' to the Consumer Protection Act. Until then the general misleading-practice rules apply. A shop selling from Estonia into Germany is judged in Germany either way.
- Enforcer
- Tarbijakaitse ja Tehnilise Järelevalve Amet (TTJA)
- Statute
- Tarbijakaitseseadus (Consumer Protection Act) implementing the UCPD — § 16 misleading and § 18 aggressive practices, penalties in § 70 — together with Reklaamiseadus (Advertising Act), which sets general requirements for advertising independently of consumer law.
- Ceiling
- €400,000
Finland
A small, highly digital market with an active regulator and an unusual penalty structure: there is no fixed euro ceiling at all. The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority can seek a penalty payment of up to 4% of turnover, so exposure scales with the size of the business rather than with the number of claims.
- Enforcer
- Kilpailu- ja kuluttajavirasto (KKV)
- Statute
- Kuluttajansuojalaki (38/1978) chapter 2 on marketing, implementing the UCPD. Penalty payments are governed separately by Laki kuluttajansuojaviranomaisten eräistä toimivaltuuksista (566/2020), which is where the amounts live.
- Ceiling
- 4% of turnover
Sweden
Sweden has one of the most active greenwashing enforcement records in the EU and a penalty that is purely turnover-based, with no fixed ceiling. The Patent and Market Court has repeatedly found vague environmental wording misleading, and Annex I of the UCPD is written directly into the penalty provision.
- Enforcer
- Konsumentverket / Konsumentombudsmannen (KO)
- Statute
- Marknadsföringslagen (2008:486), which implements the UCPD. Section 29 makes a breach of the Act — or of Annex I to Directive 2005/29/EC — punishable by a market disruption fee; section 31 sets the amount.
- Ceiling
- 4% of turnover
Why the market you sell into matters more than the one you sit in
Consumer protection follows the consumer. A shop in Tallinn selling to buyers in Düsseldorf is assessed under German rules, in German, by whoever is entitled to act there. Being outside the EU changes nothing either — the rules follow the sale.
That has a practical consequence for copy. A claim translated word for word can be safe in one market and litigated in another, because national case law has already attached meaning to particular phrases. Each guide lists the local wording that carries the most risk.
Selling into an EU country that is not listed here?
Directive 2024/825 applies the same way in every EU member state, as does the Annex I blacklist it inserts into the UCPD (Directive 2005/29/EC) — what differs is the penalty and the procedure, which is exactly what these eight guides describe. The scanner works the same whether or not your market is listed, and the cross-border rule holds everywhere: consumer protection follows the consumer, so the country you sell into sets the standard you are judged by.
Check your claims against a specific market
Pick a country in the scanner and the exposure estimate uses that market’s ceiling.