EmpCo Green Claims Checker: find risky eco claims - Module PrestaShop

Find the environmental claims to check in your shop

Since 27 September 2026, Directive (EU) 2024/825, known as EmpCo, has amended the European directive on unfair commercial practices. A generic environmental claim such as “environmentally friendly” or “eco-responsible” is no longer allowed unless the trader can demonstrate recognised excellent environmental performance, and a product can no longer be presented as “carbon neutral” on the basis of emissions offsetting. National transpositions add their own rules.

Your texts were written over the years, by several people, in several languages. Knowing what hundreds of product pages, categories and CMS pages really say has become a job in itself. The module reads those texts, points out the wording to check and gives you the means to document your decision — without ever changing your shop for you.

What the module scans

For the selected shop, in each active language:

• products: name, summary, description, meta title, meta description and image captions;
• categories: name, description, additional description when the version provides it, meta title and meta description;
• CMS pages: meta title, SEO title, meta description and content;
• brands and suppliers: name, description, meta title and meta description;
• features and their values, including custom values;
• carriers: name and the delivery delay shown to customers.

Disabled products, categories and pages are scanned too: they carry a “disabled” badge so that you can fix them before they go live. Language-neutral names, such as those of brands, suppliers and carriers, are checked against the dictionaries of every active language.

A dictionary grouped by risk family

The built-in dictionary exists in French, English, German, Spanish, Italian and Polish. Each term belongs to a family, shown with its reference:

• generic environmental claim — Annex I, point 4a;
• carbon neutrality based on offsetting — Annex I, point 4c;
• sustainability label without certification — Annex I, point 2a;
• future performance without a verifiable plan — Article 6(2)(d);
• legal requirement presented as a distinctive feature — Annex I, point 10a.

Ambiguous words are handled as phrases: “green” alone is not flagged, “green product” is. The search ignores accents and case, recognises inflected forms and only matches whole words: “bio” triggers nothing inside “biography”. By default, English terms are also looked for in the texts of the other languages, because “eco-friendly” or “carbon neutral” often appear in a French or German product page.

Context changes the severity, never the presence

Each finding shows the excerpt around the term. If the sentence contains a percentage, a figure with an environmental unit, a recognised label or certification (EU Ecolabel, Blauer Engel, FSC, GOTS, OEKO-TEX, the EU organic logo, Ecocert, and others) or a negation, the severity drops one level and the reason is shown. The finding stays in the list: you decide whether it is justified.

A review that leaves a trace

Each finding gets a status: To do, Justified with a mandatory evidence note, Permanent exception or Fixed. The author and date are recorded, and the finding history keeps every decision. At the next complete scan, a term that has disappeared is automatically set to Fixed; a Justified finding whose text has changed goes back to To do; a permanent exception stays an exception.

The review log and the findings export to CSV, ready to open in a spreadsheet and attach to an evidence file.

Built for large catalogues and multistore

The scan runs in batches, with a progress bar and a resume after an interruption: you can close the tab and continue later. In multistore, each shop has its own findings, log and scan; the module asks you to select a shop when several are selected.

What the module does not do

It rewrites no text, hides no finding and does not decide whether a claim is lawful. It displays nothing on the storefront, adds no script to the front office and sends no data outside, apart from the license check of the licensed edition. Its references point to Directive 2005/29/EC as amended by Directive (EU) 2024/825; national laws may add their own rules. When in doubt, ask a legal professional.

Which shops is it for?

Cosmetics, fashion, home, baby, garden, food, zero waste, and any shop that advertises “CO2-neutral” delivery. Agencies managing several shops can scan each one and export a status report per client.

Requirements

PrestaShop 1.7.8, 8.0+ or 9.0+, PHP 7.4 or later, the mbstring extension and Unicode PCRE. The module works in the back office only, so it is independent of the theme. Interface in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Polish; dictionary in six languages, German included. An active license is required to scan, review and change the dictionary; without a license, findings and the log stay readable and exportable.

Know what your texts claim, fix what needs fixing, and keep the evidence of your review.