Swedish court bans Arla's "netto noll klimatavtryck" claim for organic dairy products (2023)

From summer 2019 until spring 2022 Arla Foods AB (Arla), a farmer-owned cooperative, marketed products in its Arla Ko Eko organic range in Sweden with the claim "netto noll klimatavtryck" (net zero climate footprint). On the older pack, used until about week 37 of 2020, the text said that all remaining greenhouse-gas emissions were balanced by carbon-binding activities such as planting and protecting forest, which made the product climate neutral. On the newer pack the text said that all climate emissions from cow to consumer were offset in full through the purchase of climate credits from, for example, tree-planting projects.

According to the judgment, Arla had bought climate credits in the Bujang Raba forest-conservation project in Indonesia and the Trees for Global Benefit tree-planting project in Uganda, both certified by Plan Vivo, and in the African Biogas Partnership Programme, certified by Gold Standard, with about one third of its offsetting in each. In its calculation, which the judgment records as Arla's, the greenhouse-gas emissions of the Arla Ko Eko range in 2018 were 158,427,000 kg CO2e.

In a case brought by the Consumer Ombudsman (Konsumentombudsmannen), the court ruled on 2 February 2023 that the marketing was misleading under section 10 and unfair under section 8 of the Swedish Marketing Act. It found that the calculations aimed at a result to be reached only after 100 years, that the average consumer could not be expected to understand this, and that on a cursory reading the claim could be understood only to mean that the product did not affect the climate at all or that its climate impact had been fully compensated. It held that Arla had not shown with sufficient strength that the marketing was reliable. The court banned Arla, under a fine of SEK 1,000,000, from using the claim "netto noll klimatavtryck" or similar claims in marketing dairy products, and ordered Arla to pay the Consumer Ombudsman's legal costs of SEK 354,855 plus interest. In setting the fine the court noted that Arla had stopped using the marketing during the proceedings.

Dagens PS reported on 21 November 2022 that Arla was stopping the offsetting of its products ahead of the trial and had earlier in the year stopped using the claim; Arla's sustainability manager said the company had run the campaign "by the book". LandbrugsAvisen, citing SVT, quoted her on 22 November 2022 saying that the offsetting for the Arla Ko Eko range would be phased out at year-end as other climate and sustainability measures were moved closer to Arla's own operations. For a Danish complaint over an Arla "CO2e-neutral" claim, no final outcome was found.