Contacted by Lusa, an official source from Pingo Doce stated that the company will appeal the decision, disagreeing with the Porto District Court’s view that the actions of Frente Animal do not cause severe and irreparable harm to Pingo Doce.
The injunction was filed following the release, in December 2024, of images showing deformed chickens, unable to move, piled among carcasses, and handled violently.
Pingo Doce denied the allegations and took legal action against the association, demanding the immediate removal of all published images and a penalty of two thousand euros for each day they remained ‘online’.
The recently announced decision “completely rejects” this claim, affirming the legitimacy of Frente Animal’s actions, according to Joana Machado, co-founder of Frente Animal.
“This is, without a doubt, a victory that reflects the society we live in: a society that does not accept seeing animals treated in this way and demands clear and transparent information about business practices. It is an unprecedented victory for the animals in this context and may serve as a reference and precedent for future actions,” she commented.
Joana Machado believes that “business practices are crucial for shaping the market and how it functions”.
A Pingo Doce official remarked to Lusa that the ruling indicates “Pingo Doce is right on the fundamental issue, making the pressure exerted by Frente Animal utterly unacceptable”.
“The Court made it clear in the ruling that ‘there is little doubt’ that Pingo Doce has ‘the right to act against’ Frente Animal for behaving ‘hastily, dishonestly, and ultimately not as transparently as claimed to consumers'”, the source stated.
The ruling further emphasized that Frente Animal “did not clarify that the extremely violent images it publicized were not from Pingo Doce’s facilities, nor that the chickens sold by Pingo Doce were also available through all other major food retail chains operating in Portugal”.
Pingo Doce was “forced” to file this precautionary injunction to protect “its good name and restore the truth in response to the defamatory campaign initiated by Frente Animal on social media in December 2024” and intends to appeal the Porto District Court’s decision.
