Dive Brief:
- Danone settled two false advertising lawsuits over its plastic packaging that were filed by nonprofit public interest organization Earth Island Institute and the group’s sponsored project, the Plastic Pollution Coalition.
- Danone denied the claims in the case PPC filed last year in Washington, D.C., but it agreed to allocate corporate funds over the next three years toward developing solutions to reduce plastic packaging or provide plastic-free alternatives for Evian bottles in the U.S., according to a PPC news release.
- In the case EII brought against Danone and nine other CPG companies in California in 2020, Danone agreed to support initiatives to reduce plastic waste in the state and add a statement to its website about plastic recycling limitations and some plastic bottles ending up as pollution in the environment, according to an EII news release.
Dive Insight:
“Greenwashing,” when companies make misleading environmental or sustainability claims, is becoming riskier as the use of technology to identify bad actors grows, according to speakers at a recent webinar led by sustainability strategy and communications consultancy thinkParallax and law firm Ropes & Gray. In addition, the volume of judgments against these companies continues to increase, as does the dollar value for judgments or settlements.
This trend comes despite the expected update to the Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guides, guidelines for environmental marketing claims, apparently stalling out. The agency released the Green Guides in 1992 and last updated them in 2012. FTC requested comments on potential new updates in 2022 but has released little communication since then about progress toward a finalized update.
PPC filed a complaint in Washington, D.C., in July 2024 against Danone over claims of misleading sustainability and recyclability marketing statements about Evian water bottles. EII filed the other lawsuit in California in February 2020 against the 10 major consumer packaged goods companies over claims of contributing to plastic pollution and engaging in misinformation campaigns about plastic packaging’s recyclability.
The Danone settlements follow the District of Columbia Superior Court’s decision in March to deny the CPG’s motion to dismiss that case, allowing it to move forward. The same happened last year in the Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo, for EII’s case against the 10 CPGs.
The California case is still scheduled for trial in May 2026 against the remaining CPGs that have not yet settled with EII: Clorox, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Crystal Geyser Water, Mars, Mondelez and PepsiCo. Besides Danone, earlier this year EII also settled with Nestlé and Procter & Gamble, according to court documents.
As demonstrated in the Danone settlements, PPC’s and EII’s lawsuits generally do not seek financial compensation, but rather request that defendants cease the offending behavior and amend marketing statements. Besides greenwashing lawsuits against CPGs, this year Earth Island also joined a coalition of cities and nonprofits in suing the Trump administration over freezing funds that aid pollution and climate change projects.
Earth Island Institute and Plastic Pollution Coalition tout the environmental lawsuits they file against major corporations, including those they dub “Big Plastic,” for greenwashing, plastic pollution and other related issues. This year, PPC filed separate greenwashing suits against Fiji Water and parent The Wonderful Company; Aquafina water and parent PepsiCo; Core Hydration water and parent Keurig Dr Pepper; and Just Water and parent Just Goods. Last year, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled that Coca-Cola must face the deceptive sustainability marketing lawsuit that EII brought against it.
Corporations have faced a variety of plastics-related lawsuits from other plaintiffs in recent years. In 2023, New York’s attorney general sued PepsiCo over its single-use plastic packaging causing pollution; a judge dismissed that case in 2024. BlueTriton Brands faced a class action lawsuit over claims of microplastics in its Ice Mountain bottled water, which an Illinois judge dismissed last year.
Danone itself faced a similar microplastics lawsuit, which a Chicago judge dismissed last year. Earlier this year, the company settled a plastics transparency lawsuit with three European organizations and agreed to four measures, including implementing reusable packaging solutions.
Danone did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
