Food & Beverage

  • April 16, 2024

    Vineyard Wind Urges 1st Circ. To Uphold Project Approval

    Developers of an offshore wind energy project near Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, on Tuesday urged the First Circuit not to revive a fishing group's legal challenge to the endeavor, arguing the environmental review process was solid.

  • April 16, 2024

    US Tequila Startup Defeats Older Mexican Rival's TM Case

    A Texas federal judge has decided that the tequila marketplace is big enough for both a U.S. startup called "Casa Azul" and an older Mexican brand called "Clase Azul," whose lawyers unsuccessfully tried to persuade the judge of its fame by playing a music video by reggaeton rapper Ozuna. 

  • April 16, 2024

    Amway Parent Must Face Trial In Retirees' 401(k) Suit

    A Michigan federal judge refused Tuesday to totally free Amway's parent company from a class action accusing it of stacking its 401(k) with unwise investments and excessive fees, saying a jury should determine whether the company's investment review process was prudent.

  • April 16, 2024

    6th Circ. Won't Rehear White Ex-Kroger Manager's Bias Case

    A former manager for Kroger will not get to argue his claims he was fired because he is a white man before the full Sixth Circuit, according to a new order, letting stand the appellate court's decision to dismiss the former manager's claims.

  • April 16, 2024

    Plaintiff Wants Big Sugar Antitrust Suits Consolidated In Fla.

    A plaintiff in one of more than a dozen antitrust suits accusing sugar companies of engaging in a price-fixing scheme argued that the litigation should be consolidated in Florida, which is responsible for more than half of all American sugarcane production and is home to more of the sugar company defendants than any other jurisdiction.

  • April 16, 2024

    Impossible Foods Slams 'Radical' TM Fight At High Court

    Impossible Foods has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a request by a marketing firm owned by a self-described "digital nomad" to review a split Ninth Circuit decision reviving the veggie burger-maker's trademark lawsuit against it, arguing the petition mischaracterizes personal jurisdiction legal precedent and makes "radical" constitutional arguments.

  • April 16, 2024

    Trade Commission Confirms Turkish Paper Bags Hurting US

    The U.S. International Trade Commission unanimously voted Tuesday that paper shopping bags imported from Turkey are hurting the United States' domestic industry through unfairly lower prices.

  • April 16, 2024

    Arbitration Pacts Leave Domino's Wage Suit Plaintiff-Less

    An expense reimbursement dispute against Domino's can't go forward because it will be without a named plaintiff, as the four drivers who were supposed to step in are all bound by arbitration agreements, a Michigan federal judge ruled Tuesday.

  • April 15, 2024

    McDonald's, Workers Battle Over Future Of No-Poach Case

    Workers suing McDonald's over its past use of no-poach provisions in franchise agreements have told an Illinois federal court the fast food chain is trying to slow down the case after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up its appeal.

  • April 15, 2024

    Shopper Says ConAgra Beans Poisoned Her With Ammonia

    A Colorado woman is suing ConAgra over alleged ammonia contamination in one of its refried bean products, claiming in a lawsuit removed to Colorado federal court Monday that one bite resulted in cuts, blisters and bleeding in her mouth and throat.

  • April 15, 2024

    Panera Hit With False Ad Suit Over 'Sprouted Grain' Bagel

    A customer hit Panera LLC with a proposed class action accusing the restaurant chain of falsely marketing its bagels as made with sprouted grains despite the main ingredient being less healthy non-sprouted grains, according to a suit removed to California federal court Friday.

  • April 15, 2024

    Canadian Supplement Co.'s Sale Hits Ch. 15 Snag In Del.

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge appeared skeptical Monday that an American judge can weigh in on a dispute over rights to Canadian assets, as counsel for a troubled nutritional supplement supplier based in Canada argued for U.S. recognition of a sale order from an insolvency court in its home country.

  • April 15, 2024

    Academics Push To Cut Investor Arbitration From Trade Deals

    Hundreds of law and economics professors have joined the chorus of calls on the left pressing U.S. President Joe Biden to snip investor-state dispute settlement provisions from existing trade deals, saying the legal mechanism privileges corporate entities over domestic citizens.

  • April 15, 2024

    Pet Food Brand Chicken Soup Says Supplier Hiked Costs

    A manufacturer that supplied the Chicken Soup for the Soul pet food brand bought ingredients from its own subsidiary, hiked prices and failed to deliver products, according to a response to the manufacturer's $3.1 million allegation that the name brand failed to pay for food already manufactured and sold to consumers.

  • April 15, 2024

    Food Supplier Sues Ga. City Over $1.5M Wastewater Penalties

    The city of Dawsonville, Georgia, and seven city officials have been sued in Georgia federal court by a food supplier that alleges the city threatened to shut off water and sewage service to its poultry processing plant based on more than $1.5 million in "illegally assessed" wastewater discharge penalties.

  • April 15, 2024

    Versace Mansion Workers Lose Bid To Revive Wage Claims

    Workers at the former Versace Mansion can't revive their minimum wage claims because a service fee charge is not a discretionary tip and was lawfully used to top off the workers' base hourly pay, the Eleventh Circuit said Monday.

  • April 15, 2024

    Dairy Co. Oberweis Hits Ch. 11 With Up To $50M In Debt

    Oberweis, a popular Illinois-based ice cream and dairy producer run by a former Republican state senator, has hit Chapter 11, disclosing it has as much as $50 million in liabilities.

  • April 15, 2024

    Justices Won't Nix FDA Labeling Preemption For State Claims

    The Supreme Court on Monday let stand lower court findings that the unique authority of the federal Food and Drug Administration preempted and, therefore, justified dismissing a proposed class action that alleged a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary broke Massachusetts law by misbranding Lactaid drug products as dietary supplements.

  • April 12, 2024

    Misconduct Doomed Dining Mat Patent Case, Fed. Circ. Rules

    The Federal Circuit on Friday upheld a decision that a maker of toddler dining mats torpedoed its patent case against a rival with "unconscionable" misconduct, and ordered a lower court to reconsider findings that the patent is invalid but not unenforceable.

  • April 12, 2024

    Petition Watch: Judge DQs, 'Excessive' Damages & Price Wars

    A former al-Qaida member has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify disqualification protocol for judges overseeing a case related to their prior work as a government attorney, and energy drink manufacturers want the court to develop a modern-day test to determine if companies qualify as price-discrimination competitors. Here's four high court petitions filed recently that you might've missed.

  • April 12, 2024

    Abbott Labs Gets Price Claims Tossed In Baby Formula MDL

    An Illinois federal judge on Friday threw out a suit from parents alleging that Abbott Laboratories benefited from increased prices during a shortage of baby formula kicked off when one of its facilities was shut down, saying they haven't shown that the company's profits during that time were unjustly retained.

  • April 12, 2024

    Bimbo Beats False Ad Suit Over 'All Butter' Entenmann's Cake

    Bimbo Bakeries defeated a proposed class action alleging its Entenmann's brand "All Butter" loaf cake is misleading to customers since the butter taste is partially sourced from artificial vanillin, after a Maryland federal judge said Friday the claims are preempted by the U.S. Food Drug and Cosmetic Act.

  • April 12, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen footwear brand Dr. Martens hit online retailer Temu with a passing off claim, Welsh soccer club Swansea sue its former head coach Russell Martin, Russian diamond tycoon Dmitry Tsvetkov file a claim against his former business Equix Group Ltd., and U.S. bank Omega Financial Corporation hit African oil and gas company Tende Energy with a claim. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • April 12, 2024

    High Court Keeps Arbitration Exemption's Focus On Workers

    The U.S. Supreme Court held Friday that distributors who delivered Tastykake, Wonder bread and other baked goods to retailers may qualify for an exemption from the Federal Arbitration Act that could let them keep their wage-and-hour suit in court.

  • April 11, 2024

    Gerber, Others Must Face Calif. MDL Over Baby Food Toxins

    A group of baby food manufacturers, including Gerber Products Co., Hain Celestial Group Inc. and Beech-Nut Nutrition Co., must face consolidated lawsuits alleging that heavy metals in their products cause autism spectrum disorder and other conditions in California federal court, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ruled Thursday.

Expert Analysis

  • Understanding Discovery Obligations In Era Of Generative AI

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Attorneys and businesses must adapt to the unique discovery challenges presented by generative artificial intelligence, such as chatbot content and prompts, while upholding the principles of fairness, transparency and compliance with legal obligations in federal civil litigation, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • IP Suits Over Brand Owner Font Use Offer Cautionary Tales

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    Dyan Finguerra-DuCharme and Mallory Chandler at Pryor Cashman consider the history of fonts and point to recent court decisions that show how brand owners can avoid legal typeface troubles.

  • Series

    ESG Around The World: Mexico

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    ESG has yet to become part of the DNA of the Mexican business model, but huge strides are being made in that direction, as more stakeholders demand that companies adopt, at the least, a modicum of sustainability commitments and demonstrate how they will meet them, says Carlos Escoto at Galicia Abogados.

  • The Case For Post-Bar Clerk Training Programs At Law Firms

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    In today's competitive legal hiring market, an intentionally designed training program for law school graduates awaiting bar admission can be an effective way of creating a pipeline of qualified candidates, says Brent Daub at Gilson Daub.

  • FTC Warning Letters Note 5 Mistakes For Influencers To Avoid

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    The Federal Trade Commission recently sent warning letters to two trade associations and 12 health influencers over their social media posts, offering insight into how the agency plans to enforce its updated endorsement guides and highlighting five concerns to keep in mind for marketing campaigns, says Gonzalo Mon at Kelley Drye.

  • Ohio Voters Legalize Cannabis — What Comes Next?

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    This month, voters approved a citizen-initiated statute that legalizes marijuana for recreational use in Ohio, but the legalization timeline could undergo significant changes at the behest of the state's lawmakers, say Daniel Shortt and David Waxman at McGlinchey Stafford.

  • Opinion

    A Telecom Attorney's Defense Of The Chevron Doctrine

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    The Chevron doctrine, which requires judicial deference to federal regulators, is under attack in two U.S. Supreme Court cases — and while most telecom attorneys likely agree that the Federal Communications Commission is guilty of overrelying on it, the problem is not the doctrine itself, says Carl Northrop at Telecommunications Law Professionals.

  • Attorneys Have An Ethical Duty To Protect The Judiciary

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    The tenor of public disagreement and debate has become increasingly hostile against judges, and though the legislative branch is trying to ameliorate this safety gap, lawyers have a moral imperative and professional requirement to stand with judges in defusing attacks against them and their rulings, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.

  • What Cos. Should Know About FTC's Proposed Junk Fee Rule

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    The Federal Trade Commission recently announced a notice of proposed rulemaking targeting junk fees and how businesses may advertise prices to consumers — and since it would give the agency powers to seek monetary penalties against businesses that do not comply, companies should look to get ahead now, say Phyllis Marcus and Nicole Johnson at Hunton Andrews.

  • AI Can Help Lawyers Overcome The Programming Barrier

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    Legal professionals without programming expertise can use generative artificial intelligence to harness the power of automation and other technology solutions to streamline their work, without the steep learning curve traditionally associated with coding, says George Zalepa at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Preparing Law Students For A New, AI-Assisted Legal World

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    As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the legal landscape, law schools must integrate technology and curricula that address AI’s innate challenges — from ethics to data security — to help students stay ahead of the curve, say Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics, Ryan Abbott at JAMS and Karen Silverman at Cantellus Group.

  • Series

    ESG Around The World: South Korea

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    Numerous ESG trends have materialized in South Korea in the past three years, with impacts ranging from greenwashing prevention and carbon neutrality measures to workplace harassment and board diversity initiatives, say Chang Wook Min and Hyun Chan Jung at Jipyong.

  • Employer Takeaways From 2nd Circ. Equal Pay Ruling

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    The Second Circuit 's recent decision in Eisenhauer v. Culinary Institute of America reversed a long-held understanding of the Equal Pay Act, ultimately making it easier for employers to defend against equal pay claims brought under federal law, but it is not a clear escape hatch for employers, say Thelma Akpan and Katelyn McCombs at Littler.

  • General Counsel Need Data Literacy To Keep Up With AI

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    With the rise of accessible and powerful generative artificial intelligence solutions, it is imperative for general counsel to understand the use and application of data for myriad important activities, from evaluating the e-discovery process to monitoring compliance analytics and more, says Colin Levy at Malbek.

  • Rite Aid's Reasons For Ch. 11 Go Beyond Opioid Suits

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    Despite opioid-related lawsuits being the perceived reason that pushed Rite Aid into bankruptcy, the company's recent Chapter 11 filing reveals its tenuous position in the pharmaceutical retail market, and only time will tell whether bankruptcy will right-size the company, says Daniel Gielchinsky at DGIM Law.

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