In its judgment of
10th September 2019, the German district court in Hanover decided that it
is not misleading to consumers when handbag manufacturers label vegan
products with the terms ‘vegan leather’ or ‘apple leather’. Does that make
sense?
A contradiction in terms: vegan leather
Everybody is familiar with terms like ‘vegan sausage’, ‘soy milk’ and
‘vegan leather’ and it is clear that vegan sausages contain no meat and
soybeans no milk. The same is true for vegan leather, which is not made
from skin and can therefore never be leather. However, some people do not
appreciate this blending of contradictory terms. In 2017, a court
prohibited manufacturers of milk alternatives to use the word ‘milk’ in
their product name. Thus, ‘soy milk’ became ‘soy drink’. And for some time
now, even the association of the German leather industry (VDL) has been
wanting to stop ‘vegan leather’, ‘apple leather’ or ‘mushroom leather’ to
be called such because it is not leather. In a legal dispute with the
German manufacturer of vegan leather handbags Nuuwai, the district court of
Hanover has now ruled that these terms are permitted. The VDL had argued
that they were misleading and anti-competitive.
The VDL has been sending threatening letters to companies
Nuuwai is not the only label that was contacted by the association.
German label Zvnder also received a letter asking them to come up with
another word for their tinder fungus leather and mushroom leather. The
VDL’s justification in the letter is rather dry: “As leather, genuine
leather or with a term that, according to current opinion, appears on
leather or a type of leather (box calf, nappa, nubuck, morocco leather,
etc.), can only be described, for sales purposes, a material made from the
unsplit or split animal skin or coat through tanning under preservation of
the grown fibres in their natural interweaving. Which material can
basically be called leather is defined in designation regulation RAL 060 A2
– the differentiation of the term leather compared to other materials.”
“They are threatening us with penalties of up to 250,000 euros per
violation,” says Svenja Detto, managing director at Nuuwai.
Contradictory jurisdiction
Why did the controversy arise? “In short, every product should say what
is in it,” says Thomas Heinen, vice chairman of the VDL and managing
director of Heinen Leder, Germany’s last tannery for leather used for shoes
and bags. “This makes sense for all participants because then it is also
clear what one is paying for, what it can be used for and what not.
Consumers are then not misled positively or negatively by a name that has
nothing to do with its content.” There is also leather tanned on a
vegetable basis, something one could mistake apple leather for.
For the VDL, the verdict is a harsh defeat. So far, the court’s
justification is not yet available, and the association is still
considering whether to appeal as it actually has a series of successful
lawsuits to boast: In eleven similar cases, the association was allowed to
deny furniture stores and other retailers to use terms such as vegan
leather, textile leather, eco leather or PU leather.
Vegan leather just means that it is not leather
The aim of the association is to ensure that regular leather is not
linked with products that have nothing (or want nothing) to do with
leather. “Leather has inimitable haptic, optical and technical properties.
These properties have resulted in a consistently positive image for
centuries. Now, this positive image is being ‘diluted’,” says Heinen and
adds that one has to defend oneself against that. It is unlikely that
vegans share the same enthusiasm for leather and the question remains: Why
do they name their products like this then? Though there would be hardly
any consumers who would mistake vegan leather for genuine leather – and no
one is being misled (as the court argues) – the term does, however, obscure
what it actually is. Vegan leather just means it is not leather but what is
it then? In Nuuwai’s case, apple leather is made half from apple waste and
half from polyurethane, while Zvnder’s mushroom leather is made 100 percent
from the tinder fungus. Oftentimes, vegan leather is actually polyurethane
or made from other synthetics, i.e. petroleum-based plastics that once
snarkily used to be known as artificial leather or ‘pleather’ (plastic
leather).
A clear terminology would be more honest
It would be more honest to come up with new terms, such as Pinatex, the
‘leather-’like material made from pineapples. Probably the term ‘leather’
is only used out of necessity because there is no other terminology for
vegan leather yet. But this should change soon in view of the growing
popularity of veganism. The VDL accelerates this process and gives the
companies it identifies a nasty shock. In terms of content, however, vegan
leather producers have no problems. “I don’t really care about my material
being called leather,” says Zvnder founder Nina Fabert. She is currently
coming up with a new term.
This article was originally published on FashionUnited DE. Edited
and translated by Simone Preuss.
Photos: Zvnder, Vegan Fashion Week, Nuuwai
