H&M Greenwashing Lawsuit: What Was Alleged and What Happened

In July 2022 a US consumer, Chelsea Commodore, sued H&M in federal court in New York, alleging that the company's online "Sustainability Profiles" made its clothes look greener than they were. The case never reached a ruling. It is still worth studying, because it shows how a scorecard built on supplier and material data can become a legal problem for a brand, and why that data comes back to the factory.

Everything about the lawsuit below is an allegation made by the plaintiffs. H&M did not lose a judgment, and no court found that it misled anyone.

What Was Alleged

The case was Commodore v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz LP, in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (case 7:22-cv-06247). A second plaintiff, Rakeedha Scarlett, was added in an amended complaint in early 2023. The claims were deceptive practices and false advertising under New York General Business Law, and unjust enrichment.

The plaintiffs argued that H&M's product pages and its "Conscious Choice" labelling gave shoppers an impression of lower environmental impact that the underlying data did not support. A widely reported example was a dress shown as using 20% less water, which a Quartz investigation reportedly found used about 20% more water than the comparison. The complaint also challenged "conscious" wording, the garment-recycling programme and a price premium on the products.

The Higg MSI and the Norwegian Warning

The scorecards drew on the Higg Materials Sustainability Index (MSI), a tool created by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), now Cascale, to compare the environmental impact of materials. It is a serious industry tool, but it was designed for internal comparison and design decisions, not as a basis for consumer claims.

In June 2022, before the US lawsuit, the Norwegian Consumer Authority (Forbrukertilsynet) concluded that the outdoor brand Norrøna's marketing based on Higg MSI was misleading and asked it to change or remove the claims. It also warned H&M that using the Higg MSI as the basis for environmental claims would "easily be misleading and forbidden". That was a warning, not a formal finding against H&M. The authority said the index measures only up to the finished fabric and relies on average figures. It wrote to the SAC that it shared responsibility for how the tool was used, and said it could take action over breaches after 1 September 2022.

On 27 June 2022 the SAC paused consumer-facing use of the Higg MSI labels globally. This happened before the lawsuit was filed, not after it. I could not confirm the date on which H&M itself stopped showing the scores.

How the Case Ended

On 13 December 2023 the plaintiffs filed a notice dismissing their claims with prejudice. This is reported as an apparent settlement, but no terms were made public. So the case produced no judgment on whether H&M's claims were misleading, and anyone who says the court found H&M guilty of greenwashing is wrong.

Where EU Rules Stand Now

Two EU measures matter here, and they are often mixed up.

The Green Claims Directive was proposed by the European Commission in March 2023 (COM(2023) 166). It would have required companies to substantiate environmental claims before making them. In June 2025 the Commission announced its intention to withdraw the proposal, so it is not in force and should not be described as upcoming law. Check the current status before relying on it.

Directive (EU) 2024/825, the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive, is the one that matters now. Member states had to transpose it by 27 March 2026, and its rules apply from 27 September 2026. It bans generic environmental claims such as "eco-friendly" or "green" when the trader cannot show recognised excellent environmental performance, bans claims that a product is neutral, reduced or positive for the climate when based on offsetting, and bans sustainability labels that are not based on a certification scheme or set by public authorities. Penalty levels are set by each member state; figures such as "up to 4% of turnover" appear in vendor summaries and I could not confirm them in the legal text.

What This Means for Suppliers

The legal risk of a consumer claim sits with the brand. The data behind it often comes from you. If a customer wants to say a garment uses recycled polyester, you will be asked for the certificate and the chain of custody. If it wants to say a product has a lower footprint, you will be asked for measured data and the method behind it.

The H&M story also shows a second point: averages and partial boundaries are not a good basis for a product claim. The Norwegian authority objected that the Higg MSI covers only part of the life cycle and uses average figures. A figure for your own process, with a stated boundary, is more useful to a customer than a generic number.

What a supplier can prepare

• Keep current certificates for recycled, organic or other material claims, and the transaction records that link them to the batches you shipped.
• Record the boundary of any footprint or water figure you give a customer: what is in, what is out, and which data is measured or estimated.
• Keep the calculation file and the raw data behind it, so a customer or an auditor can re-check the figure.
• Say when a number is an average or a default value rather than your own measurement.
• Ask your customers which claims will refer to your data, and ask to review the wording before it is published.
• Do not offer wording such as "sustainable" or "eco-friendly" on your own products unless you can show what it means.

Frequently Asked Questions

References

Court docket, Commodore v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz LP, S.D.N.Y. 7:22-cv-06247, and press coverage of the complaint and the December 2023 dismissal. Norwegian Consumer Authority statements on Norrøna and the Higg MSI (June 2022), as reported in the trade press. Sustainable Apparel Coalition announcement pausing consumer-facing Higg MSI labels (27 June 2022). European Commission, Green Claims proposal COM(2023) 166 and the June 2025 announcement. Directive (EU) 2024/825. Most of these are secondary summaries; confirm details in the official text before relying on them.