The Hempany loses in court

As soon as the ruling is legally binding, the start-up will no longer be allowed to call its hemp drink "Milck". The Stuttgart Regional Court thus ruled in favor of the Wettbewerbszentrale's lawsuit.

The Stuttgart Regional Court has upheld the Wettbewerbszentrale's complaint against The Hempany. In the future, the start-up may no longer market its drink made from hemp under the name "Milck". The Stuttgart-based company advertised with slogans such as "hemi = hemp milck" and the addition "We milk hemp seeds instead of cows."

The Hempany is now likely to face high costs. They will have to bear the legal costs and change the marketing. According to information from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung the start-up is currently still consulting with its lawyer about a possible appeal against the ruling. The verdict is not yet legally binding.

In the oral proceedings, the Regional Court of Stuttgart followed the argumentation of the Wettbewerbszentrale, which referred to an EU directive. According to this, only products of animal origin may be called "milk". Tudor Vlah of the Wettbewerbszentrale argued as early as mid-Decemberthat this absolute protection of the designation could not be circumvented even by changing a letter.

On its website, the company had criticized the lawsuit before the court hearing and asked for solidarity. Behind this, the founders suspected the dairy lobby. The start-up itself sees "Milck" as a term of art; consumers could easily distinguish the product from animal milk.