Lotus loses Dutch lawsuit over ‘sugar score’

Disappointment for Lotus Bakeries in a Dutch courtroom: the Belgian biscuit baker tried to stop a campaign by Amsterdam start-up Holie’s, but the judge does not see the latter’s “Sugar Score” as misleading advertising.

“Piercing through the marketing bullshit”

At the heart of the dispute was the sugar score list, which Holie’s introduced in June: that attributes a score from A (low sugar) to C (more than 10 % sugar per 100 grams). Two of Lotus’ brands (Nakd and Trek) were put into the worst category, Holie’s own bars came out of the test as the best. Founder Valentijn van Santvoort described the campaign at the time as a way to “pierce through the marketing bullshit and show you exactly how much sugar is in your food.”