Vegan sausages and burgers have as much right to their names as their meatier counterparts, the European Union’s top court ruled Friday.
Judges in the Court of Justice said that — where a legally protected name isn’t already being used — EU countries can’t stop companies that make plant-based meat alternatives from calling them “steaks” or “sausages.”
It’s a win for French lobby group Protéines France, which launched a legal challenge last year alongside two other veggie associations and California’s Beyond Meat after the French government banned it from using terms like steak and ham for its plant protein products.
It means that — unless a member country has already created a law defining what a sausage or a burger is — it can’t ban vegan competitors from using generic terms for its meat alternatives.
