September 27! End of greenwashing and “sustainable” claims.
Just a few more months and then it’s finally here! And we’re not talking about the release date of GTA6, but about September 27, 2026. That is when the enforcement of the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (ECGT) officially comes into effect. In other words: the Greenwashing Act 2026, which officially prohibits presenting yourself as greener than you actually are. As far as we’re concerned, finally! Because we sometimes see sustainability claims passing by that make us think… That doesn’t add up. Or rather… You are just deliberately scamming people.
What exactly is greenwashing?
Greenwashing is presenting yourself greener, more sustainable, or environmentally friendly than you actually are. A marketing trick where companies use nice words and green imagery to distract attention from a less sustainable reality. Under the new Greenwashing Act 2026, you are no longer allowed to look at just one aspect of your product, but must look at the big picture. For example, if the environmental benefits of your sustainable product are (partially) negated by unnecessary shipping extras (fancy packaging material), then your product is simply not as “environmentally friendly” as you claim, and that is misleading.
But also…
And this is where we, as developers, draw the comparison. Your website is the digital packaging of your product. You may well sell sustainable textiles, but if you sell them through a webshop crammed full of marketing trackers and pixels, then you are simply wrapping your products in fancy digital packaging material. And here… the Greenwashing Act and the GDPR come together. Sustainability is about your (digital) ecological footprint, the GDPR is about respect for your customers’ privacy. A website that collects data via scripts and pixels violates the principle of data minimization.
Love and attention are not pieces of evidence.
It is a phrase you read on almost every “sustainable” webshop: “made with care and love.” Although that sounds wonderful, the regulator (the ACM) no longer cares about it. In the new legislation, there is simply no room for subjectivity. “Care” and “love” are not units of measurement. You cannot plot them on a graph and use them to prove CO₂ reduction. As of the enforcement date, any claim not based on hard, verified data will simply be considered misleading. Quite simply, no supporting data = no sustainability claim.
And social sustainability?
Sustainability is not just about the environment, but also about how you treat people! Respecting privacy is seen as an ethical duty. A company that collects more data than necessary is never “sustainable,” neither socially nor environmentally. After all, less data means fewer servers humming away, resulting in less CO₂ and a smaller digital footprint. The argument “I am not saying that I am sustainable, but that my products are” is precisely the argument that no longer holds water. It is not just your product that is looked at, but your entire business operation, including your website or shop.
So we are being deliberately misled?
Not always! Many entrepreneurs genuinely have the best intentions, believe in their product, and work towards a fair supply chain. The deception often lies not in the intention, but in the lack of knowledge about the entire chain, and particularly the digital chain. Many webshop owners have no idea that the Christmas tree of marketing tools they deploy immediately undermines their sustainability claim on the backend. It is deception if they are informed about this but still continue to consider statistics slightly more important than sustainability; there is a difference between not knowing and not wanting to know.
What is WetNose doing about it?
We always deliver websites and shops in accordance with a zero-tracking standard. For the sake of PageSpeed, the extra points for Google, but also for sustainability. We use clean code that requires as little computing power (and therefore energy) as possible and strictly adhere to “Privacy by design”. We always inform our clients about the consequences of adjustments for PageSpeed and the green claims they make themselves (or have made), such as installing trackers. For us, the GDPR and ECGT are not burdensome laws, but marks of quality. And as they say, “a better environment starts with you“.