American Beverage Association

California’s legislature rushed to pass a last-minute measure that bans cities and counties from passing soda taxes until 2031. The bill was passed to stave off a ballot initiative backed by the soda industry that would have made it much harder for municipalities to hike any type of tax.

With judges split 5-2, the Pennsylvania Comonwealth Court upheld Philadelphia's 1.5-cent-an-ounce tax on sweetened beverages, the second win in court by the city, said Philadelphia Magazine. "Still, the ruling doesn’t conclude the soda tax war," said the magazine, because the American Beverage Association and local businesses could appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The nation’s first soda tax, Berkeley, California’s one-cent-per-ounce levy, hasn’t impacted retail businesses, but it has reduced soda purchases by 9.6 percent, says a new study by the University of North Carolina.

In "the opening shot of 2017," health advocates filed suit in federal court in Oakland, Calif., accusing Coca-Cola and the trade group American Beverage Association of deceiving consumers of the health risk of sugary drinks and saying there was no link between sugar-sweetened beverages and obesity, says Quartz. Coca-Cola said the lawsuit was "legally and factually meritless."

The American Beverage Association, a soda industry group, said it will suspend payments to health experts speaking against soda taxes on social media, said the Associated Press.

The electoral tussles over 1-cent-per-ounce soda taxes in San Francisco and Oakland are becoming two of the most expensive campaigns in California this year with more than $46 million in donations, says public broadcaster KQED. The American Beverage Association has spent $28.7 million in fighting the taxes, said KQED, noting the nationwide ramification of referendums.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the beverage industry is spending millions to convince voters that the proposed soda tax will raise their grocery prices, not just the cost of sugary drinks, says Bridget Huber in FERN’s latest story, produced with PRI’s The World.

IA San Francisco federal judge ruled that the city has the right to force sugary beverage companies to post health warnings in display ads for their products, says The San Francisco Chronicle. The law, which is the first in the nation, was challenged in court by the American Beverage Association, the California Retailers Association and the California State Outdoor Advertising Association. It will take effect on July 25th.

Mexico's 10-percent tax on sugary drinks put a dent in soda sales at first, but purchases are on the rise again, "making the country a key growth market again for soda giants Coca-Cola and PepsiCo," says the Wall Street Journal. In a country with the highest per-capita soda consumption rate in the world, the tax was a public health measure aimed at high levels of obesity and diabetes.

Soda-taxes aren’t just an idea that liberals like, says Quartz. The soft drink industry is facing at least 12 soda tax initiatives on ballots across the country, including in places that don’t lean nearly as far left as Berkeley, California,

The landslide passage of a 1 cent-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, such as sodas, energy drinks and sweetened teas, by votes in Berkeley, Calif, "was a big defeat for Big Soda and a big victory for...

A combined $9.1 is being spent to defeat referendums in Berkeley and San Francisco on taxing sugar-sweetened beverages, 18 times more than the $489,000 proponents have gathered, according to published reports.