Author: David Almeida

David S. Almeida is a partner in Benesch’s Litigation Practice Group, Chair of the Class Actions Practice Group, Chair of the Retail, Hospitality & Consumer Products Group, and Chair of the TCPA Practice Group. He focuses his nationwide practice on navigating clients through class action lawsuits, complex business litigation and regulatory investigations across a variety of industry sectors including retail, telecommunications, marketing and advertising, hospitality and healthcare. He is widely recognized as an expert in consumer fraud and privacy class action defense, and was recently named an Illinois Super Lawyer following the successful defense of numerous bet-the-company class actions.

Benesch Ranks in BTI Litigation Outlook 2018

Benesch has been ranked in the top 20% of all law firms by corporate counsel for Class Actions in BTI Litigation Outlook 2018. Each year BTI reaches out to a strategically designed group of top legal decision makers at large organizations with $1 billion or more in revenue.

BTI Litigation Outlook 2018 is based solely on in-depth telephone interviews with leading legal decision makers. This comprehensive analysis trends data from more than 4,800 corporate counsel client interviews conducted over the span of 18 years.

Bittersweet: The Chicago Sweetened Beverage Tax Sparks Class Action Litigation

Authors: David S. Almeida, Courtney C. Booth, Mark S. Eisen

After a protracted legal fight, Cook County’s much maligned Sweetened Beverage Tax went into effect on August 2, 2017. See County of Cook, § 74-850, et seq.[1] In relevant part, the tax requires retailers of sweetened beverages to tax $.01 per ounce of sweetened beverage. For bottled beverages, calculating the tax is fairly straightforward (though, as noted below, putative class action lawsuits over the taxation of bottled water have been filed against companies like PepsiCo and Walgreens). For fountain drinks—which have caused the biggest litigation headache—the tax is calculated by the number of ounces the cup can hold.

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