Ricky Schoeman | Updated 5 Nov 2026
If you sell to businesses, you’ve probably heard that it doesn’t concern you, or that you need to rewrite everything immediately. Both are wrong, and most of the explainers don’t help, because they’re written for consumer brands.
This one is written for the founder whose customers are companies.
The short answer: at EU level, EmpCo (Directive (EU) 2024/825) applies only to business-to-consumer commercial practices, so purely B2B communications are outside its direct scope. But “we only sell B2B” rarely settles the question. Your website may reach consumers, some countries apply similar rules to B2B, and your customers may repeat your claims to consumers. Each of those can pull you back in.
This article isn’t legal advice. Your exact position depends on your market, your customers and your claims, so check with counsel.
What EmpCo covers
EmpCo amends two EU consumer laws, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and the Consumer Rights Directive. Member states had to transpose it by 27 March 2026, and it has applied since 27 September 2026. It restricts generic claims like “eco-friendly”, offset-based carbon-neutral claims for products, uncertified sustainability labels and unsupported future targets. For the full list, see our EmpCo claims checklist.
The key word in all of that is consumer. The rules protect individuals buying outside their trade or profession. That’s why the B2B question matters, and why the answer has several parts.
The EU-level answer: purely B2B is out of scope
The directive amends the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, which covers only B2C practices, and the European Commission’s Q&A on EmpCo (published November 2025 and updated in 2026) treats it that way. Business-to-business communications fall outside it. Annual sustainability reports, including those prepared under the CSRD, are generally outside the rules too, because they’re typically mandatory and addressed to investors rather than consumers. The exception: parts of a report that go beyond what the law requires can count as voluntary, and reusing report content in consumer marketing brings it into scope.
So if your claims only ever reach other businesses, EmpCo doesn’t directly apply to them. The trouble is the “only ever” part.
Four reasons “we only sell B2B” isn’t the end of the story
1. Your website probably isn’t B2B-only
Corporate websites usually mix audiences: customers, investors, job candidates, journalists and the occasional consumer. Legal commentary on the Commission’s guidance notes that corporate communication is often a blend of B2B, B2C and communication to employees, and that consumer-facing and employee-facing content is in scope.
If your homepage says “sustainable” and anyone can read it, ask who actually reads it. A B2B-only claim that’s visible to consumers can be treated as a consumer-facing claim.
2. Some countries apply similar rules to B2B
EmpCo sets a minimum at EU level. Member states can choose to apply the same rules, or something similar, to business-to-business practices under their national law, and the national picture is mixed:
- France and Spain go furthest. In France, the draft transposition (as adopted by the Senate in February 2026) places the new greenwashing and label prohibitions in the Consumer Code in a way that applies to B2C, B2B and non-professional relationships alike. In Spain, a draft bill amending the Unfair Competition Law includes provisions on greenwashing and sustainability labels that could apply to B2B relationships too.
- Germany and Belgium already reached B2B in part. Both transposed the underlying Unfair Commercial Practices Directive in ways that apply at least partly to B2B. Germany has since implemented EmpCo through an amendment to its Unfair Competition Act (UWG), passed in December 2025. For EmpCo itself, however, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy and the Netherlands have confined their transposing measures to B2C.
- Transposition is incomplete. In May 2026 the Commission opened infringement procedures against 20 member states for missing the March deadline, including Belgium, Spain, France and the Netherlands. Draft bills may have changed since, so check the current text.
Even where a country’s EmpCo rules are B2C-only, the new tests can still influence how its general B2B misleading-advertising rules are interpreted. If you sell into more than one country, a B2B-only claim can be fine in one and risky in another.
3. Your customers repeat your claims
If you supply businesses that sell to consumers, your claims travel. A packaging supplier says its material is “sustainable”, and the brand puts “sustainable packaging” on the shelf. Now the claim is a consumer claim, and your customer is the one exposed.
Even if you aren’t legally liable, you’ll feel it: tougher supplier questionnaires, requests for evidence, contract clauses and indemnities, and in some cases lost deals. Commentary on EmpCo due diligence makes this point directly, noting that a B2B-only business may still face contractual claims and commercial pressure when its customers pass its claims on.
4. Your buyers’ due diligence doesn’t care about scope
Investors, acquirers and enterprise procurement teams read your claims regardless of what the law technically covers. They want evidence. Vague claims that would be banned in a consumer context read as a warning sign in a B2B one.
Where do you fit?
| Your situation | Does EmpCo apply directly? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| You sell only to businesses, and your site and materials are clearly B2B | Generally not at EU level | Check national B2B rules in your markets (France and Spain go furthest), and keep claims specific |
| Your website also reaches consumers (individual buyers, a consumer-facing line, general public pages) | It can, for the consumer-facing content | Review those pages against the EmpCo rules |
| Your customers sell to consumers and repeat your claims (B2B2C) | Indirectly, through your customers | Give customers evidence they can safely pass on, and expect questionnaires |
| You’re non-EU but your claims reach EU consumers | Yes, for those claims | Treat EU-facing content as in scope |
| You publish sustainability or CSRD-type reports for investors | Generally not | Be careful with any voluntary content, and if you reuse report content in marketing aimed at consumers |
| You sell carbon credits or offset-based services to businesses | Not to your own B2B marketing | Note that your buyers can’t use offsets to make product-level carbon-neutral claims, which changes how you should market |
That last row matters for climate-solution companies. If your product helps customers make “carbon neutral” claims, the ban on offset-based product claims directly changes what your buyers can say, and therefore what they’ll want from you.
A five-step check for B2B companies
- Map your audiences. List every place your claims appear (website, deck, packaging, social, job ads) and who can actually see each one.
- Find the consumer touchpoints. Any page, product or channel a consumer could reasonably reach counts.
- Check your markets. If you sell in France, Germany, Spain or elsewhere, find out whether national rules reach B2B claims and whether the country has finished transposing EmpCo.
- Ask your customers. Do they pass your claims on to consumers? If so, what do they need from you?
- Build an evidence file. For every claim, keep the data, certificate or verified plan behind it, ready for a customer, investor or regulator.
Why write to the EmpCo standard anyway
Even if you’re fully outside the law, there’s a commercial case for writing specific, evidenced claims. Your B2B buyers already discount vague language, “eco-friendly” included. Specific claims with numbers, dates and named standards are more credible, easier for a procurement team to verify and harder for a competitor to undercut.
For examples of what that looks like, see our guide to rewriting sustainability language for EmpCo.
FAQ
Does EmpCo apply to B2B companies?
Not directly at EU level. The directive covers business-to-consumer practices only. But consumer-facing website content, national laws that extend similar rules to B2B (France and Spain most clearly), and customers who repeat your claims can all bring you into scope in practice.
Does EmpCo apply to my website if I only sell B2B?
It can. A corporate website often reaches consumers and employees as well as customers, and those parts of the content are within scope.
Does EmpCo apply to sustainability reports and CSRD disclosures?
Generally not, because they are mandatory and aimed at investors and other business readers. Content that goes beyond the mandatory disclosures can count as voluntary, and if you reuse report content in marketing aimed at consumers, that marketing is in scope.
Does EmpCo apply to non-EU companies?
If your claims reach EU consumers, yes. The rules follow the consumer, not the company’s headquarters.
Can B2B greenwashing still be a legal problem?
Yes. Misleading B2B claims can be caught by general misleading-advertising and unfair-competition rules in some countries, regardless of EmpCo.
What are the penalties?
National law sets them, so they vary by country. Under EU consumer law (the 2019 Omnibus Directive), fines for widespread infringements can reach at least 4% of annual turnover in the countries concerned.
Leave a Reply