Greenwashing—the practice of falsely conveying an environmentally responsible public image of a product or service—has become a growing concern in Latin America as businesses increasingly seek to align themselves with the global sustainability agenda. Amid rising consumer demand for eco-friendly products and corporate accountability, numerous companies in the region have adopted “green” marketing strategies. However, these claims are not always backed by verifiable practices or measurable impact. As a result, greenwashing not only misleads consumers but also distorts fair competition, creating an uneven playing field for genuinely sustainable businesses.

Despite the growing prevalence of greenwashing, Latin American legal systems remain under-equipped to address this phenomenon effectively. While consumer protection laws sometimes offer a basis to challenge misleading advertising, there is a lack of comprehensive legal frameworks explicitly targeting environmental deception. More importantly, the role of unfair competition law, with its core objective of safeguarding market integrity and honest commercial practices, remains largely underexplored in the region. It may offer a promising tool to combat greenwashing practices that go beyond consumer deception and harm competitors engaged in legitimate sustainability efforts.

This research project seeks to fill this critical gap by examining how existing unfair competition regimes in selected Latin American jurisdictions—such as Brazil, Argentina, the Andean Community and Mexico—can be interpreted or reformed to address greenwashing more effectively. It will analyze case law, legislative frameworks, and institutional enforcement mechanisms, with particular attention to the role of industrial property offices, consumer agencies, and environmental authorities. Comparative references may also be drawn from the European Union and North America, where regulators and courts have begun to develop more sophisticated approaches to greenwashing under competition and advertising law.