Court revives greenwashing lawsuit against Coca-Cola

September 6, 2024

The DC Court of Appeals has revived a lawsuit against Coca-Cola, alleging that the company’s marketing campaigns involved greenwashing, after the case was initially dismissed.

The international environmental organisation Earth Island Institute filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola in 2021, claiming that the company’s campaigns to promote its sustainability efforts and goals amounted to greenwashing.

The DC Superior Court dismissed the case, partly on the grounds that statements about aspirational goals cannot be proven true or false. The group was therefore unable to create a valid claim under the DC Consumer Protection Procedures Act (CPPA), which protects consumers from false, deceptive or unfair business practices.

However, the DC Court of Appeals has now overturned the Superior Court’s dismissal of the lawsuit, ruling that Coca-Cola is indeed in violation of CPPA. Consequently, the case will return to the Superior Court for consideration on its merits.

Earth Island Insitute initially claimed that Coca-Cola was not taking sufficient action to meet its stated goals of making 100% of its packaging recyclable by 2025, using 50% recycled materials in packaging by 2030, or recycling a bottle or can for every one of those sold by 2030.

The group also pointed out that, despite Coca-Cola using phrases like “our planet matters”, “investing in sustainable packaging platforms to reduce our carbon footprint” and a “world without waste”, the company had been named the top corporate plastic polluter for the three years leading up to the lawsuit filed in 2021.

In particular, it cited research that 13,834 branded Coca-Cola plastics were recorded in 51 countries in 2020, reflecting more plastic than the next two top global plastic polluters combined.

In response to the revival of the lawsuit, Sumonan Majumdar, CEO of Earth Island Institute, said: “For decades they [Coca-Cola] have failed to do the one thing that would help align their actions with their words, which is reduce their use of plastic packaging.

“We are encouraged that our lawsuit can now move forward so that we can hold Coca-Cola accountable for these misrepresentations.”

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