Oatly is NOT milk! Trade body for Britain’s dairy industry wins legal battle as judge rules firm behind the vegan drink can’t call itself that in any marketing

31 comments

1. It should start branding itself “nilk” just to wind them up.

   If anyone asks, it’s a portmanteau of “not milk” and thus in full compliance with their wishes.

2. Oatly are going to dine out on this and use it to their advantage big time.

   Looking forward to it to be honest.

3. This is dumb, I don’t drink the stuff personally (my partner does) but no one is going to confuse it for real milk and it’s used as a substitute. As far as milk alternatives it’s probably one of the best because it doesn’t have as strong flavour compared to soy or almond milk and goes well in a latte

4. No consumer has ever bought oat milk thinking it’s bovine mammary fluid but there you go.

5. Is this the same dairy industry that markets the milk being sold as healthy? Gotcha.

6. That seems ridiculous. You can ‘milk’ anything. Milk doesn’t just comes ftom dairy animals.

7. I thought this was old news? They’ve been calling themselves an “oat drink” for as long as I can remember

8. Given that we’ve been calling the milk of a coconut it’s “milk” for thousands of years, perhaps this isn’t really a fair ruling.

9. Cool, anyway I’ll have an flat white with oat milk please

10. Do oat drinks even call themselves oat milk? I’ve got a few brands in the fridge and neither Moma or Aldis have milk on the packaging

11. I’m not vegan and I bloody love dairy, but I have never bought a vegan alternative by mistake. This is petty protectionism at its worst.

12. They might not be able to call themselves milk, but I don’t think anyone asking for it instead of dairy is going to call it anything other than oat milk, so really what was the point?

13. Fuck sake. Just make them put ‘Cow’s Milk’ on milk from a cow.

14. I think this is a bit bullshit, tbh.

    The term “milk” is regularly used for things which aren’t actually dairy, E. G. Coconut milk, beauty products, etc. And I don’t think it is likely that anyone could mistake Oatly for dairy milk, as the packaging is very clear.

15. What about Milk of the Poppy? Is even that not milk?

16. Side note: absolutely love the chocolate oatly if it’s chilled.

17. What do we call Milk of Magnesia now? It’s not good on Corn Flakes by the way.

18. A favorable ruling for a dairy industry just in time for a major scandal that might impact their sales and pr? What a coincidence! /s

19. Damn straight! Also peanut butter and cocoa butter aren’t butter, butter milk is neither milk nor butter, and coconut milk doesn’t come from coconut nipples!Glamorgan sausages aren’t sausage, and dragon sausages have no dragon in them (the Welsh have a lot to answer for in the sausage aisle), swedes are definitely false advertising as they’re not Scandinavian in the slightest, the shepherds pie has zero shepherd in it (apparently it’s lamb? That’s like the opposite of a shepherd) but im assuming cottage pies still have bits of masonry in them so we’re good on that front.

    It’s high time the advertisment standards took into account the fact that we’re all idiots and unable to understand the mutable nature of language and inability to cope with new things.

20. Accuracy is so important. Cow milk should have an easy to understand explainer of the process required to make cows lactate (I love dairy FWIW)

21. Farmers have become quite uppity about stupid things recently. The denial of their stupidity back in 2016 however remains a mystery.

22. I’ve been noticing all alternative “milks” have slowly started calling themselves _drinks_.

    This explains it. 

    Absurd.

23. Meanwhile Smug is made from cow milk and oat milk, but it’s still totally real milk and is called that in marketing.

    Oatly should target that brand since it’s also not real milk.

24. Funny how these dairy farmers are too impoverished to pay inheritance tax on their multimillion pound properties but can club together to fight expensive legal cases and fund lobby groups.

25. It’s almost like the dairy industry is full of shit not milk. Oh wait… it is!

26. lol the daily mail comments under the article, revelling in the ruling and shooing dairy alternatives

27. This is pathetic. And reeks of desperation from the dairy industry to discredit oat milk as more and more people turn to dairy alternatives that are far better for both our health and the environment. 

    If we are going to talk about false advertising, the dairy industry should stop pretending that dairy cows are in any way treated well, or happy. They are forcefully inseminated and their calves are taken from them at birth. 

28. You can’t call them milkshakes any more, you have to call them “partially gelatinated non-dairy gum-based beverages”.

29. “Soy milk” has been around since 25-225AD. Europeans were calling it milk in the 17th century. Dairy doesn’t “own” the word milk

30. Good.

    While we are at it, I’m gonna plug the japanese rule about fruity drinks:

    * if it is 100% fruit juice, the picture on the bottle can show the flesh of the fruit
    * if it is more than 5% fruit juice, the picture on the bottle can show the fruit itself (whole)
    * if it is 5% or less fruit juice, the picture can only show cartoonish representations of the fruit

31. Honestly this is so helpful and I welcome this ruling. I’ve been buying oat milk and soy milk for years – we even ask for it if we go to a cafe.

    I had absolutely no idea it wasn’t real milk? I thought oat and soy were like artisanal breeds of cow or something like that?

    Also my local milk man will deliver this oat “milk” do you think I could sue for false advertising?

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