Amazon Sued for Greenwashing Seafood Sustainability Claims; Wakker Dier Challenges Protix Insect-Protein Claims — Climate-Washing Now Extends to Food and Supply Chain Marketing

Two greenwashing cases filed this week illustrate the breadth of the climate-washing litigation wave. In the US (August 3), consumers filed a greenwashing action against Amazon over sustainability claims attached to its Amazon Fresh seafood products — alleging that environmental certification labels used in marketing do not accurately reflect the sourcing practices applied to the labelled products. In the Netherlands (August 4), Wakker Dier challenged the sustainability marketing claims of Protix, an insect-protein company, alleging that comparative environmental claims made in product marketing overstated the climate benefits of insect protein relative to conventional animal protein and did not meet the IIGCC/IUCN standard for comparative environmental claims. These cases sit within the category in which more than 65% of decided climate-washing cases have been ruled in favour of claimants. For ESG practice and regulatory counsel: the Amazon and Protix cases represent the leading edge of climate-washing litigation moving into food, consumer goods, and supply chain marketing — categories that were previously lower-risk than energy and financial services. The legal standard being applied in these cases — derived from the EU Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition and its US analogues — requires that environmental claims be specific, verifiable, and supported by independently assessed data. Generic sustainability labels attached to supply chain products without verified traceability are the category most exposed.