The Bremen District Court has ruled that Mondelez Deutschland has misled consumers by reducing the size of Milka chocolate bars in view of rising cocoa bean prices. This is stated in the court ruling.
The Hamburg Consumer Protection Center filed a lawsuit against the company in the fall of 2025. The reason for the lawsuit is the fact that the manufacturer, in response to rising cocoa bean prices, started producing 90-gram bars instead of the usual 100-gram ones. The chocolate packaging has remained unchanged, only it is 1 mm thinner. Although the new weight is indicated on the product, the agency found that the manufacturer did not take sufficient measures measures to inform consumers of the change.
“The appeal court ruled that the reduction in the packaging content contested by the plaintiffs constituted a case of so-called fictitious packaging and therefore constituted a deception of consumers,“ the court ruled. The judges stressed that the reduction in the size of the chocolate bars was in itself lawful, but since they had previously weighed a constant 100 grams, the change in weight created a “difference between the actual content and the visual expectation created by the consumer“.
The court found that Mondelez Deutschland should have included a “clear, intelligible and conspicuous“ indication of the change in content on the packaging. How this should be done in practice is for the manufacturer to decide on a case-by-case basis, the ruling said. Mondelez Deutschland had previously disagreed with criticism and noted that it had announced the upcoming changes on social media in advance. According to the DPA news agency, the manufacturer has already appealed the Bremen court's decision to a higher court. According to him, the company will not be punished even after the court's decision comes into force, but this will set a precedent for the future.