April 15th 2024
In March 2024, Danish Crown was convicted by the Western High Court in Denmark (Vestre Landsret) of greenwashing as they couldn’t document the accuracy of the labeling scheme “Climate-controlled pig.” The plaintiffs, the Vegetarian Society of Denmark (Dansk Vegetarisk Forening) and the Climate Movement Association (foreningen Klimabevægelsen), subsequently chose to appeal the claims on which the court did not support the green NGO’s to the Supreme Court.
On Friday, April 12, Danish Crown notified the Supreme Court and also put up a statement on the company’s website where the company admitted that the Climate Movement and the Vegetarian Society of Denmark were also correct on all of the remaining charges, thus admitting to misleading consumers in a major campaign where Danish Crown claimed that “Danish pork is more climate-friendly than you think.”
This comes after the Consumer Ombudsman a few days prior chose to intervene on the side of the Climate Movement and the Vegetarian Society of Denmark in the case.
“The development of the case means that Danish Crown acknowledges that the Vegetarian Society of Denmark and the Climate Movement were right in asserting that Danish Crown misled consumers with the expression ‘Danish pork is more climate-friendly than you think’ as well as ‘climate-controlled pig.’ It is a great victory that Danish Crown admits to having violated the law with these campaigns,” says Marc Stounberg from Kontra Advokater, who has handled the case for the green organizations along with Kurt Helles Bardeleben from Sirius Advokater.
A significant step in the fight against greenwashing
The Climate Movement and the Vegetarian Society of Denmark are pleased that Danish Crown is now conceding and acknowledging that they have broken the law on all charges. The two NGO’s see this as a significant step in stopping greenwashing in Denmark and revealing the truth about the significant climate impact and the damages caused by large scale pork production.
“Danish Crown acknowledges that they were behind a massive advertising campaign that made their climate-damaging products appear greener than they actually are. I hope that many companies will follow suit and learn from this so that we can have a fair market where climate-damaging products like pork are not marketed as ‘climate-friendly’,” says Frederik Roland Sandby, secretary-general of the Climate Movement in Denmark.
Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl, the general secretary of the Vegetarian Society of Denmark, calls it “fantastic progress” that Danish Crown has conceded and agreed with the plaintiffs on all claims.
“Pork production is incredibly climate-damaging, not least because of the massive deforestation taking place to feed millions of pigs with soy. Instead, we should reduce meat production, plant more trees, and re-establish forests to buy us valuable time to halt the dramatic climate changes we are all facing,” he says.
The Vegetarian Society of Denmark and the Climate Movement are deeply grateful for the support from the public, which made it possible to initiate the case against Danish Crown.
“This shows the public that it truly does make a difference to take on the big players – and that even small NGO’s can make a big difference,” says Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl.
As of April 2024, Danish Crown is sadly still using the phrase “climate-controlled” in their English marketing material, i.e. on their website.