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[null,"Prepared By:","Contributors:"]
[null,"Arthur Cox"]
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["Greenwashing in the EU Financial Sector"]
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["Report Generated: 11/19/2025"]
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["View your report results on next tab"]

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["Question","Ireland"]
["EBA Greenwashing Report"]
["Does your jurisdiction have an explicit legal framework to identify, address and sanction greenwashing in the financial sector? If yes, is it enacted in a specialized law or addressed by other regulations (advertising law, consumer protection law, anti-unfair competition law…)?","Ireland does not have an explicit legal framework to identify, address or sanction greenwashing in the financial sector. However, certain financial sector rules that apply generally to financial services providers could operate to prohibit and sanction greenwashing.\nThe \nConsumer Protection Code 2012 (the \"\nCPC 2012\") applies to financial services providers regulated by the \nCentral Bank of Ireland (the \"\nCBI\") or financial services providers authorized by another EU/EEA member state and performing regulated activities in Ireland. The majority of the \nCPC 2012's provisions apply to regulated firms in their dealings with \"consumers\", i.e. natural persons and incorporated bodies with an annual turnover of EUR 3 million or less. These provisions include detailed rules concerning the mitigation of conflicts of interest, the suitability of financial products for consumers' needs and objectives and the form and content of information that must be provided to consumers.\nThe \nCPC 2012 also contains general principles that apply to regulated firms in their dealings with all customers, not only \"consumers\". These include requirements for a firm to act \"honestly, fairly and professionally in the best interests of its customers and the integrity of the market\" and to \"not recklessly, negligently or deliberately mislead a customer as to the real or perceived advantages or disadvantages of any product or service\".\nThe \nEuropean Union (Markets in Financial Instruments) Regulations 2017 (the \"\nMiFID II Regulations\"), which transpose the Markets in \nFinancial Instruments Directive II (Directive (EU) 2014/65) (\"\nMiFID II\") into Irish law, contain similar requirements for investment firms who provide investment services and activities. These requirements include mitigation of conflicts of interest, a duty to act honestly, fairly and professionally in accordance with clients' best interests, to ensure all information provided to clients and potential clients is fair, clear and not misleading and to assess the suitability and appropriateness of products and services for clients.\nThe \nConsumer Protection Act 2007 (the \"\n2007 Act\") prohibits false and misleading commercial practices; these are criminal offenses under the \n2007 Act. The \n2007 Act applies to \"traders\" (which can include financial service providers) in their dealings with \"consumers\" (i.e., natural persons acting outside their trade, business or profession).\nFinally, in a November 2021 industry letter (the \"\n2021 Letter\"), the CBI outlined its supervisory expectations of regulated firms regarding climate and other ESG issues. Among other expectations, the CBI emphasized the need for firms to engage in transparent disclosure to protect consumers and investors and to avoid greenwashing.\nWe also note that the \nAdvertising Standards Authority of Ireland (“ASAI”) which is an independent self-regulatory body set up and financed by the advertising industry, publishes rules in the \nCode of Standards for Advertising and Marketing Communications in Ireland (the \"\nASAI Code\"). The \nASAI Code includes provisions covering environmental claims made by advertisers. Members of ASAI are required to abide by the \nASAI Code and not to publish an advertisement or conduct a promotion that contravenes \nASAI Code rules.\n"]
["Is the relevant legal framework based on the EU or on the national legislation?","The measures outlined above exist under national law, although certain aspects of this legislation are based on \nEU Directives.\nThe \nCPC 2012 is a code issued under Irish national law by the CBI. \nCPC 2012 does however reference certain EU legislation (such as \nMiFID II and the \nSecond Payment Services Directive (Directive (EU) 2015/2366)) but the \nCPC 2012 has been adopted pursuant to powers granted to the CBI under Irish legislation. As noted above, the \nCPC 2012 is binding on the financial services providers it applies to and the CBI has the power to administer sanctions for contraventions of the \nCPC 2012 under \nPart IIIC of the \nCentral Bank Act 1942.As noted above, the \nMiFID II Regulations transpose \nMiFID II into Irish law. The \n2007 Act transposes the \nUnfair Commercial Practices Directive (Directive 2005/29/EC) into Irish law.\nThe \n2021 Letter is not strictly binding on regulated financial services providers under national law, but the CBI expects that firms give the contents of the \n2021 Letter due regard as it outlines the CBI's supervisory expectations regarding ESG matters. The letter references the transparency and disclosure principles and requirements under the \nTaxonomy Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2929/852), the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2464), the Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2019/2088) and relevant requirements of the European Supervisory Authorities."]
["Is greenwashing, which may occur in the financial sector, addressed specifically and/or any differently from greenwashing in other sectors?","Greenwashing in the financial sector is addressed differently from greenwashing in other sectors in that certain legislation, codes and regulatory guidance apply to regulated financial service providers that do not apply to other sectors.\nThe \nCPC 2012, MiFID II Regulations and 2021 Letter (along with other codes, guidance and industry communications issued by the CBI) apply only to financial services providers that are either authorized by the CBI or supervised by the CBI for the conduct of business purposes. The \nMiFID II Regulations apply only to investment firms that provide investment services and activities in relation to \nMiFID II-regulated financial instruments.\nThe \n2007 Act applies beyond the financial sector; it covers \"traders\", meaning a person acting for purposes related to their trade, business or profession (or a person acting on such a person's behalf).\n"]
["Does the current legal framework provide a definition of greenwashing? If yes, how it is defined, is the definition regulatory-binding?","There is currently no definition of greenwashing under Irish law.\n"]
["What are the main challenges legal experts see in addressing greenwashing in the EU financial/banking sector and what are the main challenges in implementing the existing regulatory framework to address greenwashing within the EU financial/banking sector?","Complexity and novelty of ESG standards: ESG-related legal standards are technically complex, novel and evolving. Regulated entities are still in the process of developing the necessary expertise (e.g., through training and recruitment of qualified staff) to ensure compliance with these standards. The concepts and metrics used in, for example, \nSFDR and the \nEU Taxonomy, are difficult to understand, interpret and apply.\nLegal uncertainty: The lack of a legal definition of greenwashing and of guidance on what may constitute greenwashing creates legal uncertainty.\nLack of reliable data: There is currently a lack of reliable data that can be used to verify claims regarding financial products' ESG characteristics/objectives. Equally, there is no framework that would allow market participants to rely on data/reports produced by third parties.\nResourcing of supervisory authorities: Supervisory authorities will struggle to supervise regulated entities and enforce greenwashing-related legislation in a consistent and effective manner without adequate resourcing (including training and hiring of qualified staff). In particular, authorities require legal, technical and data analysis expertise.\n"]
["Are there any relevant links to national legislation and/or guidance?"," Please note that consolidated versions of Irish legislation are not publically available. The below links may not represent the up-to-date versions of the relevant legislation/regulatory code: \n Full CPC 2012 (2015) : \n \n https://www.centralbank.ie/docs/default-source/regulation/consumer-protection/other-codes-of-conduct/4-gns-4-2-7-cp-code-2012.pdf?sfvrsn=435dd71d_6   \n \n Amendments to the CPC 2012 are made by Addenda - please see here : \n \n https://www.centralbank.ie/regulation/consumer-protection/consumer-protection-codes-regulations   \n \n An unofficial consolidation of the CPC 2012 is available here (revised 1 January 2015) : \n \n https://www.centralbank.ie/docs/default-source/regulation/consumer-protection/other-codes-of-conduct/unofficial-consolidation-of-the-consumer-protection-code.pdf?sfvrsn=edd0811d_7   \n https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2017/si/375/made/en/print   \n https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2007/act/19/enacted/en/html   \n https://www.centralbank.ie/docs/default-source/news-and-media/press-releases/governor-letter-climate-expectations-november-2021   \n "]