Greenberg Traurig LLP has been behind some big wins for novel alcoholic beverage makers in labeling suits, besting consumers in several proposed class actions over the "all-natural" claims on the "Skinnygirl Margarita" drink developed by reality television star Bethenny Frankel, and landing its Food and Beverage group among Law360's Food & Beverage Groups of the Year.
The firm, which has represented Skinnygirl Cocktails LLC in lawsuits in five different states over labels on the premixed alcoholic drink, scored its latest win for the manufacturer in June when a federal court in New Jersey shot down a renewed motion for class certification. In that case, Stewart v. Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc. et al., the New Jersey federal court had previously ruled that the class couldn't be certified because the plaintiffs hadn't offered any clear methodology to ascertain who would belong in the proposed class. That case has now been dismissed, the firm said.
Before that, the firm helped the company get two suits dismissed in Florida and California, and thwart class certification in New York, New Jersey and Illinois. The Skinnygirl suits followed Whole Foods Market Inc.'s decision in 2011 to pull the 100-calorie ready-made drink amid reports that it contained the preservative sodium benzoate. The consumer suits have generally claimed that the "all-natural" label is misleading because it contains that preservative, according to court documents.
In May, plaintiff Plaintiff Amy Langendorf and defendants including Skinnygirl Cocktails, or SCG Global LLC, reached an agreement in which she dropped her lawsuit in Illinois federal court over the drink's labeling.
She had lost a class certification bid in the suit only six months before then in October 2014, when U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah had similarly found that the class was not "ascertainable," according to court documents.
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