Italian business takes rival to court over greenwashing

GORIZIA – In a first-of-its-kind legal case, a civil court in Italy has ordered a business to stop making misleading green claims at the request of one of its competitors. The landmark ruling could potentially open the doors to similar actions across Europe given that it draws on a European Union Directive which regulates unfair business practices in EU law, as part of European consumer law. The Italian Court upheld a company’s request for an interim injunction against a competitor, ordering it to stop making “vague, false, and non-verifiable green claims.”