Netherlands: AMC’s new focus on sustainability claims in food sector

Sustainability is one of the key priorities of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (‘ACM’). Since 2021, various steps have been taken by the ACM to promote honest and transparent sustainability claims in the Netherlands. This year, the ACM will specifically focus on sustainability claims in the food sector.^[1],[2],[3] On 24 April 2025, the ACM announced that it is sending sector letters to companies in the food sector requesting them to review their sustainability claims.[4] Because of the ACM’s focus on sustainability claims in the food sector, it is relevant for companies in this sector to apply the rules pertaining to sustainability claims correctly. The current and upcoming rules governing sustainability claims are summarised below.

Legal framework and enforcement by the ACM

The ACM currently enforces sustainability claims under the legal framework that prohibits unfair commercial practices as laid down in the Dutch Civil Code (‘DCC’, the implementation of the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (‘UCPD’)).The ACM has provided Guidelines that companies can use when using sustainability claims for selling their products and services.[5] The Guidelines include five rules of thumb for honest sustainability claims and also contain various examples of sustainability claims that could be considered misleading. Whether a specific claim will, in practice, be regarded as misleading depends on the relevant circumstances.

In the Guidelines, the term “sustainability claim” is defined as an umbrella term for environmental claims, ethical claims, and lifespan claims and therefore covers all claims stating that any part of the lifecycle of a product or service has a positive effect or no negative effect on humans, animals and the environment. The five rules of thumb for honest sustainability claims as included in the Guidelines are as follows: 

1. Use correct, clear, specific and complete sustainability claims
2. Substantiate your sustainability claims with facts, and keep them up-to-date
3. Make fair comparisons with other products or competitors
4. Describe your future sustainability ambitions in concrete and verifiable terms
5. Make sure that visual claims and labels are useful to consumers, not confusing

The ACM can enforce compliance with the DCC when sustainability claims contravene the Guidelines. Misleading or incorrect sustainability claims will be regarded as an unfair commercial practice under the DCC for which the ACM can impose fines up to EUR 900,000 or 1% of the company's annual turnover. 

Monitoring sustainability claims has been on the ACM's agenda for some time. Previously, the ACM focused on the energy, clothing and dairy sector.[6] Starting this year, ACM will be paying extra attention to the food sector in its supervision. On 24 April 2025 the ACM announced that it is sending sector letters to companies in the food sector.[7] In this letter, the ACM calls on these companies to review and, where necessary, amend their sustainability claims used in all communication channels, including packaging to bring them in line with the Guidelines. In the letter a summary of the Guidelines is provided including examples specific to the food sector. The ACM further announces that it will investigate sustainability claims in the food sector this year and that companies that do not (or will not) comply with consumer legislation regarding sustainability claims run the risk of enforcement by the ACM, including fines. It is, therefore, advisable to review and, where necessary, amend sustainability claims to be compliant with the applicable rules and guidelines. 

In that light, another relevant source when drafting sustainability claims is the 2021 guidance from the European Commission on the interpretation and application of the UCPD. In this guidance document, the European Commission, inter alia, addresses environmental claims and ethical claims.[8] In summary, environmental claims should be truthful, may not contain false information, and must be presented in a clear, specific, accurate and unambiguous manner, so that consumers are not mislead. Also, traders must have evidence to support their claims. These principles also apply to ethical claims.

Enforcement by the Advertising Code Committee and the Dutch court

Sustainability claims are also often the subject of complaints made to the Dutch Advertising Code Committee. Upon submission of a complaint, either by consumers or businesses (including competitors), the Dutch Advertising Code Committee will take a decision whether the advertisement in question is compliant with the Dutch Advertising Code (‘DAC’) and the more specific Environmental Advertising Code. The DAC and Environmental Advertising Code are widely accepted self-regulation containing general and more subject-specific rules on advertising based on the UCPD. 

The Dutch Advertising Code Committee has already made various decisions about sustainability claims in the food sector. Compliance with the decision is voluntary, but the Committee may undertake so-called “naming and shaming” in case of non-compliance.

Sustainability claims can also be brought before the Dutch court, as was done in the recent case against Dutch airline KLM in relation to various environmental claims made in their advertisements.[9] A number of advertisements were considered unfair and misleading commercial practices by the Dutch court and therefore unlawful.

Food and commodity legislation

In addition to the general prohibition of unfair commercial practices under the DCC and the rules following from the DAC, food products are subject to additional rules and requirements that may apply to sustainability claims, such as those set out in the FIC Regulation^[10] and the Provision of Food Information (Commodities Act) Decree. As far as this specific legislation is concerned, the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (‘NVWA’) is the competent authority to supervise and enforce the rules laid down therein. In practice, this means that both the ACM and the NVWA may have authority to take action against misleading sustainability claims used in relation to food products. However, for now the ACM and the NVWA have agreed that starting from 2025, the ACM will initially act as the supervisory authority. The ACM will coordinate any enforcement measurements with the NVWA.[11]

Furthermore, where it specifically regards the claim “organic”, a product must meet the requirements as set out in the EU regulations regarding organic products and organic production methods. For foodstuffs, SKAL Biocontrole is appointed as the control authority in the Netherlands.[12]

Upcoming legislation

The legal landscape for sustainability claims in the Netherlands and the EU will shortly change as a result of two new directives. 

Firstly, the Empowering Consumers Directive will bring sustainability claims explicitly under the scope of the UCPD.[13] Under the Empowering Consumers Directive, environmental claims are defined, and the misleading actions and omissions have been further elaborated. For example, under article 6 of the Empowering Consumers Directive, claims that contain false information where it regards “environmental or social characteristics” and “circularity aspects, such as durability, reparability or recyclability” will be deemed a misleading commercial practice. The Empowering Consumers Directive is currently being implemented in the Member States, which have until 27 March 2026 to implement the Directive and until 27 September 2026 to apply the new rules.

Further EU harmonization is anticipated with the proposed Directive on the substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims or the Green Claims Directive.[14] The Proposal sets clear criteria for substantiating environmental claims, requires independent verification, and introduces governance rules for environmental labelling schemes. The Green Claims Directive is expected to have effect as of 2027. From that moment, the Member States will have 18 months to implement the Green Claims Directive into national law. The likely date of effect of the new rules will be in 2028. 

[1] ‘ACM start in 2025 vijf nieuwe brede onderzoeken naar marktproblemen’, ACM 5 February 2025, https://www.acm.nl/nl/publicaties/acm-start-2025-vijf-nieuwe-brede-onderzoeken-naar-marktproblemen. For English see: https://www.acm.nl/en/about-acm/mission-vision-strategy/our-agendas/acm-agenda-2025. 

[2] In 2021, the ACM already launched investigations into misleading sustainability claims in the dairy products sector. See https://www.acm.nl/en/publications/acm-launches-investigations-misleading-sustainability-claims-three-sectors. 

[3] ‘ACM roept bedrijven in levensmiddelensector op hun duurzaamheidsclaims te controleren’, ACM 24 April 2025, https://www.acm.nl/nl/publicaties/acm-roept-bedrijven-levensmiddelensector-op-hun-duurzaamheidsclaims-te-controleren.

[4] ‘ACM stuurt sectorbrief over duurzaamheidsclaims aan levensmiddelen bedrijven’, ACM 24  April 2025, https://www.acm.nl/nl/publicaties/acm-stuurt-sectorbrief-over-duurzaamheidsclaims-aan-levensmiddelen-bedrijven.

[5] The Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets, Guidelines regarding Sustainability Claims version 2, 2023, see https://www.acm.nl/system/files/documents/guidelines-sustainability-claims_1.pdf.

[6] See https://www.acm.nl/en/publications/letters-companies-energy-clothing-and-dairy-sectors-about-sustainability-claims. 

[7] ‘ACM roept bedrijven in levensmiddelensector op hun duurzaamheidsclaims te controleren’, ACM 24 April 2025, https://www.acm.nl/nl/publicaties/acm-roept-bedrijven-levensmiddelensector-op-hun-duurzaamheidsclaims-te-controleren; ‘ACM stuurt sectorbrief over duurzaamheidsclaims aan levensmiddelen bedrijven’, ACM 24  April 2025, https://www.acm.nl/nl/publicaties/acm-stuurt-sectorbrief-over-duurzaamheidsclaims-aan-levensmiddelen-bedrijven. 

[8] Guidance on the interpretation and application of Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market (2021/C 526/01).

[9] District Court Amsterdam 20 March 2024, ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2024:1512.

[10] Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on the provision of food information to consumers. 

[11] Sector letter ACM of 22 April 2025, ‘Oproep ACM om duurzaamheidsclaims te controleren’, footnote 1. See https://www.acm.nl/system/files/documents/sectorbrief-over-duurzaamheidsclaims-aan-levensmiddelen-bedrijven.pdf. 

[12] See https://www.skal.nl/over-ons. 

[13] 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.

[14] Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims Directive) COM(2023) 166 final 2023/0085 (COD).