The ESG register · United States

FTC Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims

The guides state what a claim must be substantiated by. Enforcement runs through FTC Act section 5.

Identifier

16 CFR Part 260

Status

in force

Applies

2012-10-11

Supervisor

Federal Trade Commission

Who is covered

Anyone marketing goods or services to consumers in the United States with environmental claims.

Requirements in the text

• 16 CFR § 260.2

  Reasonable basis for every claim

  An environmental marketing claim must have a reasonable basis at the time it is made, and that basis must match the evidence experts in the field would require. The claim must be qualified clearly enough that consumers do not take it for more than it is, with the qualification close, prominent and understandable. Implied claims are judged the same way as express ones.

  Example — A bag labelled degradable is qualified to state that breakdown occurs in an industrial composting facility, since test data does not show breakdown in a typical landfill.

• 16 CFR § 260.5

  Carbon offset claims

  Anyone selling or marketing carbon offsets must have competent scientific and accounting methods behind the quantity and may not sell the same reduction twice. Where the reduction will not occur for more than two years, that must be disclosed, and a reduction already required by law may not be marketed as a voluntary benefit.

  Example — A seller of home delivery offsets discloses that the underlying forestry reduction only occurs in five years, rather than describing the purchase as an immediate emission cut.

Counterpart in the other regime

• Empowering Consumers · EU · Direktiv (EU) 2024/825 — CELEX 32024L0825
• California AB 1305 · United States · Health & Safety Code §§ 44475–44475.2 (AB 1305, 2023)

Official source — eCFR, 16 CFR Part 260 · read 2026-09-01 · Green claims and marketing