GLIMS Journal of Management Review and Transformation
Harshita Jha1
, Neha Jain1 and Seep Sethi2
1Department of Psychology, The NorthCap University, Gurugram, Haryana, India
2Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, New Delhi, Delhi, India
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The growing trend of environmental and sustainability claims in India’s skincare industry has increased concerns about greenwashing and its impact on consumer protection. Although the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (CPA) and related advertising regulations provide a legal framework to address misleading environmental claims, their effectiveness remains limited because enforcement is largely disclosure-based and complaint-driven. This article examines greenwashing in the Indian skincare market by reviewing the CPA, 2019, allied regulatory guidelines, and insights from consumer behaviour research. It argues that existing regulations pay limited attention to the psychological factors that influence how consumers interpret sustainability claims. The article explains how visual and verbal cues, trust, emotional responses, and cognitive shortcuts shape purchasing decisions and increase consumers’ vulnerability to misleading environmental marketing. It also identifies important regulatory gaps, including assumptions of rational consumer behaviour, reactive enforcement mechanisms, and the challenges faced by small and indigenous skincare businesses in meeting compliance expectations. To address these issues, the article proposes a psycho-behavioural framework that complements existing consumer protection law by incorporating behavioural insights into the evaluation of green claims. The framework offers practical guidance for policymakers, regulators, and marketers to encourage more transparent sustainability communication and strengthen consumer trust in India’s growing green skincare market.
Greenwashing, green skincare, consumer behaviour, consumer protection act, 2019, sustainability claims
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