Washington v. McDonald’s USA, LLC, No. 4:21-cv-00367 (N.D. Ohio Feb. 16, 2021) — Herbert Washington, once one of McDonald’s largest Black franchisee owners, filed suit in the District Court for the Northern District of Ohio against the international, fast-food giant based on its alleged pattern of racial discrimination and retaliation against him and other Black franchisees. Mr. Washington now joins two-hundred thirty-eight (238) other current and former Black franchisees who recently brought class action lawsuits…

Federal courts continue to demonstrate lacking patience for nationwide product labeling class actions premised on purported label misstatements regarding the sourcing of vanilla flavoring. Recently, food retailer Topco Associates successfully moved to dismiss a class action lawsuit in the Southern District of New York alleging that the labeling on its Vanilla Almondmilk misled customers to believe that the vanilla flavor is sourced from natural vanilla bean extract, rather than artificial and synthetically produced flavors such…

As we anticipated back in May, there has been a significant increase in litigation relating to business interruption insurance coverage for losses attributable to COVID-19 restrictions. Restaurant policyholders, in particular, have been at the forefront of raising these disputes. These cases have mainly centered on the applicability of two common provisions in insurance policies: (i) Business Income Coverage provisions and (ii) Virus or Micro-organism Coverage exclusions. Most business income coverage provisions provide that coverage…