ABSTRACT
Public concern for the environment has gained in importance to the degree that "environment" is a substantial marketing factor. Consumer confidence in the truthfulness of environmental information provided by the companies continues to decline. As consumers feel incapable of judging the various claims of environmental benefit, they are calling for independent labelling schemes aimed at providing consumers with concise, reliable, and comparable information on the environmental aspects of products. Environmental labelling appears to have two general goals: providing consumers with the information which they desire and hereby increasing market efficiency; and reducing the environmental impact of local economies. The term "environmental labelling" is rather broad and imprecise, whereas the term "eco-labels" refers to a special group of environmental labels. Placing the instrument of eco-labelling in the context of a globalised economy brings up new or exacerbated problems. Strong controversy surrounds the question whether eco-labelling schemes differentiate between products on grounds that are accepted by the Word Trade Organisation.
