Bao Vu Quoted on Challenges Food and Beverage Companies Face Advertising Their Sustainability Efforts

In a pair of recent articles, California-based partner Bao Vu provides his insight to Bloomberg Law and EconoTimes into the challenges food and beverage companies face in advertising their sustainability efforts, thanks to the need to navigate a patchwork of old regulations and inconsistent legal authority.

Coca-Cola recently won two “greenwashing” lawsuits in which the judges held that the company’s advertising of its environmental impacts wasn’t misleading to consumers, in part because it was espousing “general and aspirational goals” and not making a direct promise to consumers. An environmental organization is appealing one of the decisions on the basis that the company’s claims constitute deceptive marketing.

Vu, whose ESG practice includes helping clients navigate the laws and regulations involving sustainability-related practices, claim substantiation, and advertising, said that his corporate clients often complain of inconsistencies in how courts interpret so-called “greenwashing” allegations. “One may get called out and another might not for similar types of statements,” he said, noting the existence of “a patchwork of inconsistent visions” on what could be deemed misleading.

Read the full articles here and here.