F&B Legal Roundup – July 2018

Pooja S. Nair, a litigation attorney at TroyGould PC in Los Angeles, compiles recent legal news affecting the restaurant, food and beverage and hospitality industries for Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine.

Supreme Court Win for American Express - On June 25, the Supreme Court held in a close 5-4 decision that American Express’s anti-steering rules did not violate the federal antitrust laws. As part of its merchant agreement, American Express forbids retailers and restaurants from steering the customer toward other credit cards that charge a lower transaction fee.  Ohio and sixteen other states sued American Express, claiming that these anti-steering laws were anti-competitive and a violation of the Sherman Act.  The majority of the Supreme Court found that the states failed to prove that the American Express rules harmed cardholders. The decision limits the ability of restaurants or retailers to try to control their expenses from credit card processing fees by…