[The following are excerpts from John Dillon’s full report on Vermont Public Radio about a federal court’s ruling against Ben & Jerry’s, allowing the consumer deception suit against them to move forward.]
A court has refused to dismiss legal claims that Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. uses deceptive labeling and marketing to mislead consumers about its commitment to a clean environment and humane farming.
The Organic Consumers Association alleges that the Vermont-based ice cream maker projects an environmentally responsible image that does not match reality.
Ben & Jerry’s asked a Washington, D.C. superior court to dismiss the case. But in a ruling released this week, Associate Judge Neal Kravitz said the suit “alleges facts sufficient to advance a plausible claim that consumers would be misled by Ben & Jerry’s labeling and marketing.”
Michael Colby, an organizer with the advocacy group Regeneration Vermont, said he hopes the suit puts pressure on Ben & Jerry’s to work harder to get farmers to change their practices.
“Given the strength of this ruling, it should put a little fear in Ben & Jerry’s and their corporate owner, Unilever,” he said. “They really have two choices: they can negotiate with us to do the right thing without having to go further legally. Or based on this ruling, they really are facing a legal defeat which will really force them to stop making false claims.”
The suit – which also names Unilever, the conglomerate that owns the ice cream brand – says traces of the herbicide glyphosate have been found in some of the company’s ice cream. It also alleges that farms that supply Ben & Jerry’s pollute Lake Champlain and Lake Carmi in Franklin County.
“They’re making all kinds of false claims and all kinds of money – $800 million last year – while they’re leaving the damage for Vermonters to clean up the water, for the cows to be unhealthy and for the consumers to be threatened by what’s really in their products and how they’re really farming,” Colby said.
For the full article, including audio, click here.
