2023-11-19 09:49:15
VGT can once once more state that SPAR is partly responsible for the pig suffering on fully slatted floors and use the satirized SPAR logo for this.
This EV was a muzzle on an unbelievable scale. If trading companies might no longer be held jointly responsible for the production conditions of their goods in the future, then any meaningful criticism would be prevented. Of course, retailers have responsibilities, otherwise there would be no greenwashing. The argument that SPAR does not keep animals itself and therefore cannot be held responsible for animal suffering is really absurd. The fact that a higher regional court would use such an argument is more than questionable. Does the court’s subjective rejection of the VGT and its concerns have an impact on the verdict? But fortunately that has now been put right. The actual action for an injunction will probably be heard in the near future. But at least from now on we are free to criticize SPAR and to protest once morest SPAR because of SPAR’s shared responsibility for the fully slatted pig floor.
DDr. Martin Balluch
Vienna (OTS) – Only through this ruling by the Supreme Court (OGH) is the VGT able to speak regarding SPAR’s SLAPP lawsuit once more. The preliminary injunction (EV) issued by both the Vienna Commercial Court and the Vienna Higher Regional Court (OLG) had prohibited the VGT from bringing SPAR into any connection with pig suffering. But SPAR is the retail giant that sells the most slatted-floor pork, and often with cheap offers. That’s why the VGT saw SPAR as responsible. SPAR has both filed an injunction once morest this criticism and applied for an EV. In its confirmation of the EV that the VGT may not associate SPAR with pig suffering, the Vienna Higher Regional Court even argued that SPAR does not keep animals and therefore cannot be held responsible for animal suffering. Who is it then, asks the VGT. Trade, politics and consumers do not keep animals, but the producers of pork from fully slatted floor farming justify themselves by saying that politics allows this farming and that trade and consumers demand this meat. The proverbial cat bites its own tail: who, in the opinion of the Higher Regional Court, should actually be held responsible for the pigs’ suffering?
The OGH also rejected SPAR’s argument that the VGT had disparaged SPAR within the meaning of Section 7 of the Unfair Competition Act. Through its protests, the VGT would essentially be a competitor if it criticized SPAR in particular and thereby indirectly induced consumers to go to the competition. The Supreme Court also rejected SPAR’s request that the VGT had an obligation to protest equally often and with the same intensity once morest everyone who was “equally to blame” for pig suffering on fully slatted floors. There is no obligation of equal treatment of this kind for private individuals. And the OGH continues to allow the VGT to use the satirized version of the SPAR logo in its protests because it is an expression of a critical debate. In its decision, the OGH upheld other parts of the previous EV.
VGT chairman DDr. Martin Balluch is still relieved: “This EV was a muzzle on an unbelievable scale. If trading companies might no longer be held jointly responsible for the production conditions of their goods in the future, then any meaningful criticism would be prevented. Of course, retailers have responsibilities, otherwise there would be no greenwashing. The argument that SPAR does not keep animals itself and therefore cannot be held responsible for animal suffering is really absurd. The fact that a higher regional court would use such an argument is more than questionable. Does the court’s subjective rejection of the VGT and its concerns have an impact on the verdict? But fortunately that has now been put right. The actual action for an injunction will probably be heard in the near future. But at least from now on we are free to criticize SPAR and to protest once morest SPAR because of SPAR’s shared responsibility for the fully slatted pig floor.
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Questions & Contact:
VGT – ASSOCIATION AGAINST ANIMAL FACTORIES
DDr. Martin Balluch
Campaign management
01 929 14 98
media@vgt.at
1700387647
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