Do You Strive To Make Aspirational Benefit Claims? Lessons Learned From Recent Decisions

Environmental marketing claims have been a focus of regulatory, self-regulatory, and class action activity. While claims about past or present environmental benefits clearly require sufficient substantiation, companies should not assume that aspirational statements can be made with impunity.

Earth Island Institute, an environmental nonprofit, sued Coca-Cola, claiming that the company deceptively marketed itself as sustainable and environmentally friendly, largely through the use of forward-looking aspirational statements. The Superior Court of the District of Columbia recently granted Coca-Cola's motion to dismiss this case, finding that Earth Island Institute failed to allege that these statements were provably false or plausibly misleading. To this end: