According to the Bond University Law Review, "it does not seem to be generally known that there are legal limits to the language that a business may use in regards to their environmental claims".

In Australia, there is currently no legislation that directly regulates green marketing. However, if you are concerned that any claim a company makes is misleading
or deceptive, you can refer to Section 52 in the Trade Practices Act (1974) which is a general provision for prohibiting "unfair practices".

If you have concerns about the misleading or deceptive advertising used to market a particular product (including claims made on packaging or in promotional materials), contact the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

They will suggest that you first contact the business directly to try and resolve the complaint. If you are still having difficulty resolving the complaint or you think a business may be breaking the consumer protection and fair trading laws, you should contact the ACCC Infocentre on 1300 302 502 and/or > lodge a complaint.

If every person complained about every unsubstantiated environmental claim made on all the products out there at the moment, businesses would need to be a lot more careful about labelling their products green.

ACCC Guides for Traders

Due to a significant increase in the number of complaints made to the ACCC regarding green marketing claims, in February 2008 the commissions published a guide for business regarding their legal obligations under the Trade Practices Act (1974).

It aims to assist manufacturers, suppliers, advertisers and others to assess the strength of any environmental claims they make and to improve the accuracy and usefulness to consumers of their labelling, packaging and advertising.

In June 2008 The ACCC published a guide specifically addressing Carbon Offsetting claims. The guide examines some issues surrounding carbon offset and neutrality claims, and how they are affected by the Trade Practices Act.

Both these guides are available for download at the bottom of this page.

To read the ACCC press releases that launched the guides, go to > news.

The Limitations of Legislation

In an effort to fill the legislation gaps, government and non-government bodies have stepped in and created a diversity of codes and labels with their own standards. These codes can be viewed on this website > codes

While codes create environmental standards, it is important to research exactly what these standards are before you decide if they reach your own expectations of environmental care. For codes to be of any use, they must have a rigorous accreditation and monitoring program.

> dowload the ACCC - Green marketing and the Trade Practices Act
> dowload the ACCC - Carbon Claims and the Trade Practices Act
> dowload the Bond Law Review