Green claims and EmpCo: why sustainable brands must act in 2026

There's a convenient half-truth going around: «if you're an ethical brand, the Digital Product Passport kicks in earlier for you». It's false — and believing it is a risk, not an edge. The truth is subtler, and for a brand that markets itself as sustainable it's also more urgent: it isn't the passport that starts earlier, it's a different rule. And that one does start in 2026.

The misconception to clear up#

The DPP doesn't look at a brand's marketing: it looks at the product. The obligation arises because you place a textile garment on the EU market, and it applies the same way to a brand that calls itself «ethical» and one that says nothing. Full enforcement is expected around mid-2028, after the apparel-specific delegated act (~2027). The same for all.

If anything, the opposite of the rumour is true: micro and small enterprises enjoy exemptions from some ESPR obligations (for instance the ban on destroying unsold goods). Being small or virtuous doesn't bring the passport obligation forward: at best it eases other fronts.

What actually starts in 2026: EmpCo#

The deadline that hits sustainable brands first is a different rule: the EmpCo Directive — Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition, Dir. (EU) 2024/825 — applicable from 27 September 2026.

EmpCo bans generic environmental claims — «eco-friendly», «green», «sustainable», «natural», «responsible», «climate-neutral» — unless you can prove them, with a recognised third-party certification or verifiable data. Sustainability labels are allowed only if based on genuine certification schemes; climate-neutrality claims based solely on offsetting are no longer permitted.

The penalty is not symbolic: up to 4% of annual turnover in the member state concerned.

Why it hits ethical brands (before the others)#

The mechanism is simple: EmpCo targets whoever makes environmental claims. A brand that says nothing about sustainability has little to prove. A brand that prints «recycled» on the tag, «sustainable» on the website, «low-impact» in the shop window must, from 27 September 2026, be able to back up every word.

Put differently:

The DPP is the same for everyone, in 2028. But if you market yourself as sustainable, EmpCo asks you to prove it already in 2026.

For an ethical brand, then, the practical urgency isn't 2028: it's 2026. Not because the passport is mandatory sooner, but because what the passport contains is needed sooner — the structured, verifiable data behind the claims.

The passport as proof of the claim#

A well-made Digital Product Passport is exactly the kind of proof EmpCo demands: composition, origin, recycled content, certifications, care — each with its source traced. Not a marketing PDF, but structured, machine-readable data, reachable from a QR on the garment.

This is where honest positioning matters: Trama doesn't promise «ESPR compliance» (impossible before the delegated act), but gets you «DPP-ready» — data aligned to GS1 and the draft ESPR, with source traceability on every value. And it's precisely that traceability that makes a claim defensible under EmpCo: not «we say so», but «here's where it comes from».

What to do now, concretely#

Three moves, in order, to reach 27 September 2026 without leaving your claims exposed:

• Map the claims you already use — website, tags, sheets, shop window. Every «sustainable», «recycled», «green» is a promise you'll have to back up.
• Structure the data behind them — start from the file you have (from CSV to passport): composition, recycled percentages, origin, certificates. Without a source, a claim is exposed.
• Generate the passport — identifiers, QR and JSON-LD aligned to the standard, with the source of each field. The data that proves the claim today is the same that the DPP will need in 2028: you build it once.

Arriving prepared isn't rushing: it's calmly structuring, one collection at a time, what you'll need anyway. Only, ethical brands need it a year and a half earlier than the rest.