OAKLAND, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – Greenpeace’s lawsuit against it over whether its recyclable products actually benefit the environment fails on at least three fronts, Walmart is arguing.
The company filed a motion to dismiss the case March 8 in Oakland, Calif., federal court, arguing that California courts do not have jurisdiction over it for the purposes of these claims, that Greenpeace failed to support its Unfair Competition Law claims and that Greenpeace failed to allege a basis for the injunctive relief requested.
“Greenpeace is right to be concerned about plastic pollution but wrong to think this lawsuit is an appropriate way to address that problem,” the motion says. “But none of the allegedly deceived consumers are parties here, and the products are not erroneously labeled.”
Greenpeace filed its case in December in Alameda County state court. Walmart recently removed the case to U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The lawsuit says some of Walmart’s products are marketed and sold as recyclable but they cannot be separated or removed from the general waste stream in order to be placed into the correct materials bale at recycling centers.
There are no end markets to reuse the products, the suit claims, and they end up in landfills or incinerators.
But Walmart argues they are properly labeled as recyclable.
“Even if Greenpeace’s novel theory were correct, it would not have a cause of action against Walmart, partly because (as it concedes) the reasons more plastic products are not recycled involve market conditions and third-party actions for which Walmart is not responsible,” the motion says.
The motion’s legal arguments include:
- Walmart’s conduct is no different in California than anywhere else and that the causal connection Greenpeace asserts to establish jurisdiction in California “is too attenuated”;
-Greenpeace’s UCL claim fails because it fails to allege the company lost property or money as a result of Walmart’s conduct; and
-Greenpeace’s complaint does not specify the products at issue.