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Anti-greenwashing rules: climate compliance

31 May 2024 / Teja Pisk
Issue: 8073 / Categories: Features , Commercial , Environment , Company
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The FCA’s new anti-greenwashing rule has come into force. Businesses need to act—right now—writes Teja Pisk
  • The FCA’s new greenwashing measures aim to protect consumers and improve trust in sustainable investment products and services.
  • Firms must act now or risk ramifications under civil, criminal or regulatory enforcement proceedings—and stay on top of future legislative changes.

In keeping with growing consumer interest in sustainability, the number of products and services claiming to be sustainable and environmentally friendly has increased exponentially in recent years.

This boom in ‘green’ branding has fuelled concerns that organisations are ‘greenwashing’, ie, making false, misleading or unsubstantiated claims about the environmental benefits or impact of their business, products or services.

Changing at pace

The UK’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) legal and regulatory landscape has historically been relatively fragmented (greenwashing, for example, still has no legal definition), but that is now changing at pace, with an array of new ESG-related legislation and regulation that businesses must comply with.

One such development has come from the Financial

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
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