Of the many cultural symbols of the United States – Hollywood movies, fast food, and blue jeans – Coca-Cola may be the most recognizable. The iconic soft drink has been produced by The Coca-Cola Company in various iterations for nearly 140 years. Today, the company markets many other soft drinks as well.
Legal analytics can provide a glimpse as to what challenges the Atlanta-based company faces in the courtroom. According to Docket Alarm, there are over 700 lawsuits in federal court against the company since 2015. (The analysis takes a broad view, incorporating many distributors and subsidiaries.)
Geographically, the top venue for federal litigation involving Coca-Cola related companies is the Northern District of Georgia, where the company is based. Other areas include districts in population centers like New York, Pennsylvania, California and Florida.
In terms of case types, personal injury and motor-vehicle accidents top the charts. These cases are often brought against Coke distributors, and are related to alleged injuries sustained throughout the course of Coca-Cola’s vast logistical network, from delivery trucks to the storefront.
Many of these cases are removed from state court, indicating that Coca-Cola and its various affiliates likely face a significant amount of state court litigation, outside the scope of this analysis, in addition to the federal cases.
As would be expected from a large corporation, employment-related litigation is also a top case type. One lawsuit, in the “statutory actions” case type, alleges that Coca-Cola misled customers through its advertising by indicating that a beverage contained “100% Natural Flavors.”
The formula for Coca-Cola is an infamously well-guarded trade secret. However, patent and other intellectual property cases comprise only a small part of the company’s litigation portfolio – and Coke is largely a defendant in these case types.
