AANA upping the ante in fight against advertiser greenwashing – new Environmental Claims Code in force from 1 March 2025

Starting from 1 March 2025, Australia’s leading marketing industry body, the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), will be ramping up its efforts against greenwashing in ads and marketing through a new and more extensive Environmental Claims Code (Code), replacing the current version that has been in effect since 1 May 2018.

The Code will aim to garner more consumer trust in environmental claims through an emphasis on transparency, truthfulness and verifiability, complementing the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) own actions in this area of increasing concern.

In this article, we set out:

• to whom the Code will apply;
• what the Code says;
• consequences of non-compliance; and
• other key legislation to consider.

What does the Code apply to?

The Code will apply to any Advertising containing an Environmental Claim, and will therefore need to be considered by marketers, advertisers, media members and businesses alike.

‘Advertising’ will include advertisements, marketing communications and material that are published or broadcast through any medium, and are under a reasonable degree of control of an advertiser or marketer, and which promote or oppose a product, service, person, organisation or mode of behaviour.

Images of labels or packaging that contain environmental claims that are displayed in an advertisement will be considered an element of that advertisement for the purposes of the Code.

What are the five rules?

The Code’s rules are short and straightforward, and are supported by practice notes scattered throughout the Code itself (see here). The Code contains the following key rules:

What happens if you don’t comply?

The Code will join Australia’s self-regulatory advertising and marketing system as one of AANA’s Advertising Codes.

This means that Ad Standards, Australia’s advertising regulator, can receive complaints about ads in breach of the Code. Eligible complaints will then be subject to assessment by the Ad Standards Community Panel.

Where a complaint is upheld, an advertiser will be asked to change or remove the relevant ad. A case report will also be published on Ad Standards’ website for the public to view. Note that a failure to comply may also result in Ad Standards contacting the media owner to remove the ad.

Interaction with the ACL

The Code is designed to operate in tandem with obligations that Australian marketers and advertisers already need to comply with, especially when making Environmental Claims.

Most prominently, the ACCC’s guidance on making environmental claims details their views on how businesses can comply with Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and avoid claims that are at risk of being false, misleading and/or deceptive to consumers.

Key takeaways

As Australians have become more conscious of their environmental impact over the years, we have seen businesses respond with a variety of Environmental Claims in their marketing and advertisements.

The introduction of the Code is another step in Australia’s efforts to maintain consumer trust and bring the fight to greenwashing in advertising.

For businesses, advertisers and marketers looking to make Environmental Claims moving forward, the Code requires those claims be carefully reviewed, presented in a clear and transparent manner, and to always be backed up by evidence. Failure to do so could attract complaints and negative publicity, and legal action under the ACL by various parties including competitors.

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Authored by:
Antoine Pace, Partner
Raymond Huang, Lawyer