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According to the assessment of the VKI, the advertising is misleading, since fossil energy is only dispensed with in the brewing process itself, but not in the entire production process. The regional court (LG) Linz now followed this view, the judgment is not final.
According to the VKI, Brau Union advertised both on the beer packaging and in TV commercials with slogans such as “CO2 neutral brewed”, “We have been brewing 100% CO2 neutral since 2015” or “100% of the energy required for the brewing process comes from renewable sources energies”. The VKI looked into the matter and found out that with Gösser beer, only the brewing itself, but not the upstream and downstream production processes, can do without fossil energy. In particular, the energy-intensive malting was not part of the bill, it said in a broadcast on Thursday.
In June 2022, the VKI filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Ministry of Social Affairs. The question of whether the brewing process also includes the production of malt necessary for the production of beer was controversial in the proceedings. According to the VKI, the Göss brewery does not produce the malt itself, but buys it. The heat required for production is mainly obtained from natural gas. “The production of the malt is not CO2-neutral. Malting causes a significant part of the CO2 pollution that occurs during the brewing process, namely around 30 percent,” said VKI lawyer Barbara Bauer.
Brau Union took the position that technically malting is not part of the brewing process. However, the regional court (LG) Linz shared the opinion of the VKI. According to this, consumers with average information would usually understand “brewing” to mean the entire production process of the beer from the harvest and would not make any distinction between the brewing process and malting. Brau Union appealed the verdict in its entirety.
Source: Nachrichten
