Greenpeace Sweden has submitted two separate complaints against Arla, accusing the company of climate- and environment-related greenwashing.
The first complaint concerns Arla’s advertising campaign “Worth a little more” (“Värt lite mer”), which Greenpeace claims contains misleading sustainability messages and vague climate claims. This complaint has been submitted to the Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket) and the Consumer Ombudsman (Konsumentombudsmannen).
The second complaint, filed with the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen) and the Swedish Accounting Standards Board (Nämnden för svensk redovisningstillsyn), targets Arla’s 2024 annual report. Greenpeace alleges that Arla is deliberately misleading the public about its emissions reductions.
- Arla is counting on the public, authorities, and decision-makers not reading the fine print. But we have – and we’ve spoken to farmers affiliated with Arla. It’s clear that Arla is systematically misleading both its customers and the financial market through both words and images. This isn’t just unethical – it’s illegal, says Gustav Martner, Head of Marketing Law at Greenpeace Nordic.
- The dairy industry is one of the most environmentally and climate-damaging sectors within the food industry. If Arla provided an accurate picture of its emissions, it would be clear that the company has no chance of meeting its own climate targets. By using images of grazing cows and green fields, Arla gives the impression of nature-friendly production, even though the company is pushing for ever-larger and more intensive farms where cows are kept indoors year-round. When such a dominant company misleads the public about its climate footprint and animal welfare practices, it delays political change and makes it harder for genuinely sustainable, small-scale producers to gain ground, says Sandra Lamborn, spokesperson for agricultural issues at Greenpeace.
Read the full press release from Greenpeace HERE