Introduction

Competition and sustainability

About

Regulation and competition can create incentives to use our planet’s scarce resources efficiently. Competition policy, by promoting and protecting effective competition in markets, can play a role in the realisation of the Green Deal goals. Since the promotion of consumer interests has been a key objective of EU competition policy since its foundation, it is particularly important to protect consumers against the effects of false claims of meeting environmental objectives (so-called ‘greenwashing’) and unjustified price increases or restrictions of choice, quality or innovation. It is also important to ensure that the most vulnerable consumers do not bear a disproportionate share of the costs of the green transition.