How’s this for dexterity: Two weeks after winning a U.S. Supreme Court decision that will help mentally disabled inmates avoid the death penalty, Seth Waxman of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr prevailed again at the high court in a false advertising dispute between two billion-dollar beverage companies.
In a unanimous decision issued Thursday on Pom Wonderful v. the Coca-Cola Company, the Supreme Court ruled that Waxman’s client Pom, which makes pomegranate juice, can proceed with claims that Coca-Cola falsely advertised a drink containing 99 percent apple and grape juice as “pomegranate blueberry juice.” Coca- Cola argued that false advertising claims brought under the Lanham Act through private lawsuits like Pom’s are precluded because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration already protects consumers by regulating food and drink labels under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
