US district court for the eastern district of Arkansas ruled in favor of the lawsuit filed by The Good Food Institute, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Tofurky on the basis that the challenged provision of the Arkansas law violates Tofurky’s constitutional right to freedom of speech.

The provision of the state law prohibited Tofurky from using terms such as ‘sausage’ or ‘burger’ in conjunction with ‘vegan’ and 'plant-based' stating it leads to consumer confusion. The court rules in favor of the lawsuit as the state was unable to provide any evidence to back its claims of mass marketplace confusion.

Further, the court found the law to be unconstitutionally vague on its face and banned its enforcement blocking its ability to prosecute other alternative meat producers.

Analyst QuickTake: Over the years many US states ( Kansas , Texas , Alabama, Colorado,  Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming) have passed bills prohibiting alternative meat producers from using meat related terms in their labeling which have been backed by agricultural producers in the wake of growing competition from plant-based products. However, Tofurky has successfully contended and nullified such laws in the past in the states of Louisiana and Missouri , making this its third case.