A 2022 class action lawsuit against Danone Waters’ evian spring water will move forward, thanks to a judge in the Southern District of New York, who decided this week that he could not determine as a matter of law that the term “carbon neutral” does not have the capacity to mislead consumers.
In its motion to dismiss the complaint that “carbon neutral” is misleading, Danone argued that no reasonable consumer would understand “carbon neutral” to mean the product emits no carbon dioxide during its lifecycle. How else could the product be transported from the French Alps to the United States without expending carbon dioxide in the process? Danone argued that consumers would not be misled because the “carbon neutral” claim is defined by the adjacent “Carbon Trust Certified” logo, the reference to the evian website to “Learn More about the Carbon Trust certification,” and the company’s use of the PAS 2060 standard for evaluation.
The judge did not agree, saying “carbon neutral” is a technical term that may mean a number of different things depending on the context. The judge agreed with plaintiff that it is akin to an unqualified general environmental benefit claim, which the FTC’s Green Guides warn advertisers not to make.
Danone argued the notion of adding a lengthy explanation on the label of what carbon neutrality means and the underlying data is not just unreasonable, it is not legally required. But the judge did not agree, saying that the steps consumers would need to...
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