The Oregon Supreme Court has overturned a decision from a lower court, directing the state’s Court of Appeals to revisit the dismissal of a class-action lawsuit that alleges the Tillamook County Creamery Association engaged in "greenwashing" tactics.
The supreme court decided that customers claiming financial harm from purchasing Tillamook items do not have to demonstrate they were influenced by the company’s supposedly deceptive advertisements to make their purchases.
The ruling, released on Thursday – one year following the argument of the case At the Lewis & Clark Law School – this represents a minor win for the plaintiffs. However, it doesn’t determine whether a class-action lawsuit will be approved, nor does it tackle any of the 'greenwashing' allegations in the legal proceedings.
A collective legal action enables multiple individuals to initiate a lawsuit representing those who have experienced comparable grievances. Should the court case prove victorious, everyone involved will be eligible to claim compensation.
In the Tillamook case, filed in 2019 In Multnomah County, four Oregon residents claimed they bought Tillamook products after forming a favorable impression due to the brand's advertisements. The ads suggested that the milk used for their cheese and ice cream was sourced from small family farms along the Oregon coast. However, this wasn’t true; most of Tillamook’s milk actually originates from an industrial farm located in eastern Oregon.
The lawsuit further claimed that Tillamook’s misleading statements enabled the business to demand higher prices for its items—a surcharge borne by all purchasers, irrespective of whether they were exposed to the brand’s promotional activities.
A judge from the Multnomah County Circuit Court rejected the case, stating that it does not meet the criteria for class-action status since all participants in the class-action lawsuit would have needed to see the advertisements and depend on them when purchasing Tillamook goods to experience financial harm due to the price surges. In August 2022, the Oregon Court of Appeals addressed this issue. affirmed that decision .
However, the state’s top court decided that not all participants in the class-action lawsuit needed to have seen the advertisements and depended on them to purchase Tillamook products for them to experience financial harm due to the higher prices.
The Tillamook County Creamery Association stated in a release that "this verdict isn’t an ultimate judgment on the matter nor does it establish that this case warrants a trial; it’s merely the most recent step in an extended legal proceeding."
The cooperative stated that they "firmly disagree" with the claims presented in the lawsuit and emphasized that they have always been transparent about the fact that not all of their milk and products come from Tillamook County.
Comprised of 60 farmers and providing employment to 900 individuals solely in Oregon, this cooperative manages two processing facilities—one located in Tillamook and another in Boardman—and oversees the well-known iconic brand. Tillamook Creamery visitor center on the coast.
In 2022, the cooperative surpassed $1.2 billion in retail sales. You can find their products in the majority of supermarkets throughout the U.S.
Two-thirds of its milk originates from Columbia River Dairy located just outside Boardman, which is owned by Threemile Canyon Farms based in Boardman. This makes them Oregon’s biggest industrial dairy farm and among the largest such operations in the entire country. The facility at Columbia River Dairy functions as a concentrated animal feeding operation and holds permits for up to 28,000 cattle.
Gosia Wozniacka reports on environmental justice, climate change, the shift towards clean energy, and various other ecological concerns. You can reach her at [email protected] or 971-421-3154.
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