Fight for advertising with sustainability

Legal dispute in the consumer goods industry over advertising with sustainable packaging: Frog manufacturer Werner & Mertz won in court against Procter.

Werner & Mertz proprietor Reinhard Schneider has long focused the Mainz-based family-owned company on sustainability: The cleaning brand Frosch stands for environmentally friendly products and recycled plastic packaging. Schneider went to court against competitor Procter & Gamble because they had advertised that the packaging was made of marine plastic material. He was given right.

The Stuttgart Regional Court ruled that the large consumer goods group was no longer allowed to print the words “made with Ocean Plastic” on the bottles of its dishwasher detergent “Fairy”. Procter & Gamble had advertised that the packaging consists of ten percent marine plastic. In fact, the proportion was only two percent, as Procter had to admit.