Cleaning up green marketing claims: a comparison of regulation in Australia and the U.S.A.

This paper examines Australian and US. attempts to regulate green marketing activities. Both countries have adopted voluntary guidelines in an attempt to control the problems associated with questionable green marketing claims and unfair competition which can mislead consumers. While both countries have adopted a similar approach to solving this problem the Australian activities can be generalized to all types of claims. The U.S. guidelines have been criticized as proscriptive and inflexible. The development of a set of guidelines which can be generalized will minimize the potential for consumers or governments to believe firms are using misleading green marketing claims.