Danish Crown's 'climate-controlled pig' label misled — and ended at the Supreme Court

In 2020 Danish Crown, one of the world's largest pork processors, launched a nationwide campaign across TV, radio, newspapers and ad pillars: 'Grise er mere klimavenlige, end du tror' — pigs are more climate-friendly than you think. On packaging sat a round pink sticker: 'klimakontrolleret gris', climate-controlled pig. The claim rested on suppliers in Danish Crown's climate programme, who committed to reducing their CO2 footprint — with each producer free to decide how much.

In June 2021 Klimabevægelsen i Danmark and the Danish Vegetarian Association sued Danish Crown for misleading marketing — Denmark's first greenwashing lawsuit. Supermarkets had already removed the labelled meat from shelves; Danish Crown withdrew the campaign. On 1 March 2024 the Western High Court found the pink sticker misleading but acquitted the slogan, awarding the plaintiffs one of four claims and ordering Danish Crown to pay 300,000 kroner in costs. One participating producer told the court he could not document that his pigs were more climate-friendly than others.

The plaintiffs appealed, and before the Supreme Court Danish Crown formally accepted their claims. The resulting 2024 judgment went further than the high court's: Danish Crown had to acknowledge that the slogan 'Dansk gris er mere klimavenlig end du tror' also violated the Marketing Practices Act, was banned from using it for five years and from using 'klimakontrolleret' for the scheme in question, and had to publish the judgment's reasoning and result on its homepage for at least 14 days.