Wagons Circling Around Food, Alcohol Marketers

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When a New York woman sued McDonald’s, arguing her kids were overweight because of its food, the case was widely seen as just another frivolous suit, good for a few laughs. Such skepticism seemed justified when the judge dismissed the case last year.

Since then, trial lawyers have made no secret of their intention to use strategies learned in the tobacco wars to take food and alcohol marketers to task. And after a recent spate of cases that show how these consumer-protection lawyers intend to win, no one in those industries is still smiling.

By suing under consumer-protection laws, trial lawyers can argue that a marketer trumpeting the fact that a product is, say, low in fat is guilty of deceptive advertising for failing to disclose that the product is high in calories.



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