Food & Beverage

  • May 03, 2024

    Arby's Franchise, Auto Dealer Hit With Ga. Data Breach Suits

    Workers at an Arby's franchise, a home nursing company and national car dealership have sued their employers in Georgia federal court, alleging the employers failed to safeguard sensitive personal information exposed in recent cyberattacks.

  • May 03, 2024

    Arbitration Exemption Doesn't Cover Cos., Conn. Judge Rules

    Two food distributors who created corporate entities while working for a food service business must arbitrate claims they were misclassified as independent contractors because a Federal Arbitration Act carveout doesn't apply to businesses, a Connecticut federal judge has ruled.

  • May 03, 2024

    Craft Brewer Says Tequila Co. Can't Void Its 'Dragon's Milk' TM

    A Michigan craft brewer filed a trademark action against a Mexican tequila company Thursday for trying to invalidate the brewer's "Dragon's Milk" name for being similar to the defendant's "Casa Dragones" mark, arguing the tequila maker's brand isn't a household name or famous, as defined by the federal Lanham Act.

  • May 03, 2024

    Publix Can't Send Questions To Ga. Justices In Opioid Suit

    A federal judge overseeing national opioid litigation has rejected Publix's bid to ask the Georgia Supreme Court "convoluted and confusing" questions about if the state's public nuisance law applied to allegations the supermarket chain overdistributed painkillers.

  • May 03, 2024

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

    The past week in London has seen rapper Ivorian Doll hit with a copyright claim, private members club Aspinalls file a claim against a Saudi sheikh, and Motorola Solutions file a claim against the British government on the heels of its dispute over losing a £400 million ($502 million) government contract. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • May 02, 2024

    Chicken Buyers Request $37M More In Price-Fixing Deal Fees

    Direct broiler chicken purchasers who've inked more than $284 million in price-fixing settlements are asking an Illinois federal judge for more than $37 million in what would be a third distribution of fees and reimbursed costs to their co-lead counsel in the massive case.

  • May 02, 2024

    Chiquita Paid Militants To Save Lives, Ex-Ops Chief Testifies

    Chiquita's former head of Colombia operations testified in Florida federal court Thursday on payments he approved to militant groups in the country during a period of intense warfare in the 1990s, saying his company was left with little choice but to make the payments because workers' "lives were at stake."

  • May 02, 2024

    Sysco Unit To Provide Back Pay To End DOL Hiring Bias Probe

    A subsidiary of restaurant food distributor Sysco Corp. will pay over $133,000 in back pay to resolve the U.S. Department of Labor's allegations that it discriminated against women by failing to hire qualified female applicants to fill open warehouse positions in Palmetto, Florida, the agency said Thursday.

  • May 02, 2024

    Email Exchanges Doom Honeywell Bid To Nix $20M GSA Claim

    A contract appeals board wouldn't free Honeywell International Inc. from the General Services Administration's efforts to recoup an alleged $20 million overpayment on an energy deal, finding it unclear whether a 2021 agreement related to the contract barred the claim.

  • May 02, 2024

    Sugar Price-Fixing Suits Combined In NY

    A New York federal judge consolidated six proposed price-fixing class actions against domestic sugar producers, siding with plaintiffs who wanted to try the cases as part of a multidistrict litigation.

  • May 02, 2024

    Kind Keeps Win At 2nd Circ. In MDL Over 'All Natural' Labeling

    The Second Circuit on Thursday affirmed a summary judgment for Kind LLC against a group of buyers who said the company misled consumers by labeling products as "all natural," saying the plaintiffs failed to establish through evidence how a reasonable buyer would understand the term.

  • May 02, 2024

    ADM Investor Says Brass Misled About Growth, SEC Probe

    The current and former top brass of food processing company Archer-Daniels-Midland were hit with a derivative suit in Delaware federal court alleging they provided false information to investors about the company's growth and failed to disclose a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation into its nutrition business.

  • May 02, 2024

    Biden Announces $3B To Fund Lead Pipe Replacement

    The Biden administration is distributing $3 billion to states so they can replace lead water pipes that pose a health risk to those who rely on them for drinking water, as part of the larger goal to remove all lead service lines nationwide.

  • May 02, 2024

    Poultry Cos. To Pay $5.1M Settling OT, Child Labor Violations

    A network of California poultry processors will pay over $5 million to settle a U.S. Department of Labor lawsuit in federal court after an agency investigation found the processors employed children to debone poultry and failed to pay over 475 workers overtime.

  • May 02, 2024

    Calif. Justices To Review Gilead's HIV Drug Negligence Fight

    The California Supreme Court has granted Gilead Sciences Inc.'s request to review an appellate court's holding that the drugmaker must face claims it held back a safer HIV drug to maximize profits on an older medication.

  • May 02, 2024

    State Legislators Urge Feds To Change Cannabis' Status

    A coalition of state lawmakers on Thursday urged the heads of the U.S. Department of Justice and its drug enforcement agency to prioritize changing cannabis' status as a highly restricted drug.

  • May 02, 2024

    Dilworth Paxson Attys Disciplined Over NJ Eatery Conflict

    Two Dilworth Paxson LLP partners were sanctioned by the New Jersey Supreme Court this week for investing in a restaurant on the campus of The College of New Jersey at the same time they were legally representing another investment group on the project.

  • May 02, 2024

    Davis Wright Brings On MoFo Appellate Litigator In San Fran

    Davis Wright Tremaine LLP has brought on a former Morrison Foerster LLP partner in San Francisco, strengthening its appellate practice with an experienced appellate litigator who clerked for a U.S. Supreme Court justice, a California Supreme Court justice and other judges, the firm announced Thursday.

  • May 02, 2024

    5th Circ. Asks If Facts Matter In Construction Defect Row

    A Fifth Circuit panel weighed the importance of facts versus the law in a dispute over whether an insurer must indemnify a construction company for a $1.3 million arbitration award for construction defects in a Texas farming cooperative's grain silos.

  • May 02, 2024

    Deals Rumor Mill: Coca-Cola, General Mills, MLB's Giants

    Coca-Cola is preparing an IPO for its African bottling division, cereals giant General Mills is exploring selling its North America yogurt business, and a 5% stake in the San Francisco Giants is up for sale at a price that could value the club at $4 billion. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other notable deal rumors from the past week.

  • May 01, 2024

    3 Takeaways From The DOJ's Cannabis Recommendation

    The marijuana advocacy and business world responded with guarded optimism after the U.S. Department of Justice's announcement this week that it recommended relaxing restrictions on marijuana for the first time in more than 50 years.

  • May 01, 2024

    Senate Dems Reintroduce Bill To Tax And Regulate Cannabis

    Senate Democrats on Wednesday reintroduced a cannabis legalization bill that would remove the drug entirely from the ambit of the Controlled Substances Act and impose a tax-and-regulate scheme akin to what is currently in place for alcohol and tobacco.

  • May 01, 2024

    Judge Finds Engineering Co. Had No Duty In Goya Death Case

    A Texas federal judge has thrown out claims against Zachry Engineering Inc. in a suit by the family of a Goya Foods Inc. worker who died when his forklift hit a pipe and caused him to be sprayed with nearly boiling beans, saying the engineering company had no say in the height of the pipe and was not responsible for making sure it wasn't a hazard.

  • May 01, 2024

    Settlement Ends Texas Man's Injury Suit Against Ga. Winery

    A Texas man and Georgia winery have reached a settlement ending the man's suit alleging he was injured during a 2021 visit when a patio umbrella came out of its stand, fell on him and injured his hands, fingers, thumb and chest.

  • May 01, 2024

    DOL Announces $6.5M For Seasonal Farmworker Housing

    The U.S. Department of Labor on Wednesday said it will make $6.5 million in grants available to organizations working to improve housing conditions for seasonal and migrant farmworkers and their dependents.

Expert Analysis

  • How 4 State AGs Are Shaping Data Privacy Compliance

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    As the landscape of state data privacy laws continues to grow across the nation, understanding how state attorneys general — such as in California, Colorado, Connecticut and Virginia — are thinking about these laws is critical to begin forecasting how enforcement will play out, say Michelle Kallen and Daniel Echeverri at Jenner & Block.

  • 7 E-Discovery Predictions For 2024 And Beyond

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    The legal and technical issues of e-discovery now affect virtually every lawsuit, and in the year to come, practitioners can expect practices and policies to evolve in a number of ways, from the expanded use of relevancy redactions to mandated information security provisions in protective orders, say attorneys at Littler.

  • 4 International Arbitration Trends To Monitor In 2024

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    Global growth slowed substantially in 2023, and may continue into 2024 due to geopolitical instability, which could fuel four key trends in international arbitration in the coming year, including investor-state and commercial arbitration, an increase in arbitration out of China, and more, say Gregory Litt and Sharmistha Chakrabarti at Skadden.

  • 5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2024

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    Over the next year and beyond, litigation funding will continue to evolve in ways that affect attorneys and the larger litigation landscape, from the growth of a secondary market for funded claims, to rising interest rates restricting the availability of capital, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.

  • Series

    ESG Around The World: South Africa

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    While South Africa has yet to mandate the reporting of nonfinancial and environmental, social, and corporate governance issues, policy documents and recent legislative developments are likely to have a material impact in the country's transition to a low-carbon economy and in meeting its international obligations, say Glynn Kent at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • 4 Legal Ethics Considerations For The New Year

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    As attorneys and clients reset for a new year, now is a good time to take a step back and review some core ethical issues that attorneys should keep front of mind in 2024, including approaching generative artificial intelligence with caution and care, and avoiding pitfalls in outside counsel guidelines, say attorneys at HWG.

  • What The Law Firm Of The Future Will Look Like

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    As the legal landscape shifts, it’s become increasingly clear that the BigLaw business model must adapt in four key ways to remain viable, from fostering workplace flexibility to embracing technology, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.

  • Navigating Class Actions After Papa John's Settlement Denial

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    A Kentucky federal court's surprising denial of preliminary approval for a $5 million settlement in the Papa John's no-poach case may prove to be an outlier but suggests a class action settlement would only be approved when a plaintiff demonstrates that a litigation class would be certified, say attorneys at Robins Kaplan.

  • 4 PR Pointers When Your Case Is In The News

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    Media coverage of new lawsuits exploded last year, demonstrating why defense attorneys should devise a public relations plan that complements their legal strategy, incorporating several objectives to balance ethical obligations and advocacy, say Nathan Burchfiel at Pinkston and Ryan June at Castañeda + Heidelman.

  • Food And Beverage Policy Trends Cos. Should Track In 2024

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    The list of legal issues food and beverage companies should watch out for in 2024 include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Human Foods Program, the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s salmonella proposal, Proposition 12 and more, say Bob Hibbert and Amaru Sánchez at Wiley.

  • Compliance Refresher Amid DOL Child Labor Crackdown

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    In light of the Labor Department’s recent announcement of new penalty assessment procedures for child labor law violations, Erica MacDonald and Sylvia Bokyung St. Clair at Faegre Drinker discuss what employers should know about the department’s continued focus on this issue and how to bolster compliance efforts.

  • 5 Trends That Will Affect Food Litigation In 2024

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    In 2024, food and beverage companies are likely to continue to face threats of litigation relating to so-called forever chemicals, citric and malic acid, and ESG claims, but recent developments in case law have created potential avenues for defense, say Abby Meyer and Khirin Bunker at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Law Firm Strategies For Successfully Navigating 2024 Trends

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    Though law firms face the dual challenge of external and internal pressures as they enter 2024, firms willing to pivot will be able to stand out by adapting to stakeholder needs and reimagining their infrastructure, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Consultants.

  • The Most-Read Legal Industry Law360 Guest Articles Of 2023

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    A range of legal industry topics drew readers' attention in Law360's Expert Analysis section this year, from associate retention strategies to ethical billing practices.

  • Considerations for In-House Counsel Before Testing For PFAS

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    In 2024, federal and state agencies are expected to introduce a plethora of new rules regulating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, with private litigation sure to follow — but in-house counsel should first weigh the risks and benefits before companies proactively investigate their historical PFAS use, say attorneys at Stinson.

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