Sustainability Labels in the Shadow of the Law [electronic resource] / by Eva van der Zee.

General introduction -- Regulatory Structure of Standards Underlying Sustainability Labels -- Green Pictograms on EU Foods. A Legal Study informed by Behavioural Science -- Legal Limits on Food Labelling Law: Comparative Analysis of the EU and the USA -- Disciplining Private Standards under the SPS and TBT Agreement. A Plea for Market-State Procedural Guidelines -- Overcoming False Choices and Distorted Decisions. Estimating Human Well-Being under Article 101 TFEU -- Conclusion and General Discussion.

This book describes and examines three EU legal frameworks (EU competition law, EU consumer law, and EU fundamental rights law) that may affect the extent to which consumers purchase more sustainably. In doing so, this book goes beyond a rationalist understanding of the interpretation and application of EU law. Rational approaches have severely impacted the interpretation and application of EU law. Practice shows, however, that the implications of using a noncritical application of rationalist approaches in the interpretation and application of EU competition law, EU consumer law, and EU fundamental rights law to sustainability labels may have an inhibiting effect on sustainable consumption. The book offers remedies to overcome this inhibitive effect by critically applying insights from cognitive science and behavioral economics in the legal interpretation and application of EU law.