Trademarks As Vectors Of Deception: An Analysis Of Greenwashing And Consumer Protection Law
- IJLLR Journal
- 9 hours ago
- 1 min read
Chahat Paneri, BBA LLB (H), Amity University Madhya Pradesh
ABSTRACT
A trademark defines the origin of a particular product. But in recent years, it is being used as a way of misrepresenting its true nature to make it environment friendly in the eyes of the consumer by deceptive means. This paper examines the use of marks, logos, colours and invented seals to suggest an environmental virtue a product does not possess, the practice now widely called greenwashing, and asks how well Indian law is placed to catch it. The argument is that the problem sits awkwardly across two bodies of law that rarely speak to each other: trademark law, which decides what may be registered and owned, and consumer protection law, which decides what may be said in the market. Trademark law screens a green mark once, at the door, and then largely forgets about it; consumer protection law, armed since 2024 with dedicated guidelines on greenwashing, polices the claim but treats the mark itself as someone else’s department. The paper contends that this division of labour leads to creation of a gap through which it becomes easier for deceptive green marks to pass through without any consequences thereof and instead of forming new statutory frameworks or overlapping statutes, there must be a harmonization between the two, i.e., trademarks and consumer protection law.
Keywords: greenwashing; green trademarks; consumer protection; misleading advertisement; environmental claims; deception.
