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 A three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked
the San Francisco ordinance last year. In an order on Monday, the
appeals court said it would rehear the case before a larger,
11-judge panel.
The San Francisco ordinance is part of a growing national effort to
curb consumption of soft drinks and other high-calorie beverages
that medical experts say are largely to blame for an epidemic of
childhood obesity. Many localities also have slapped special taxes
on sugary beverages.
San Francisco passed an ordinance in June 2015 requiring advertisers
within the city to include a black-box warning that said drinking
high-sugar beverages contributed to obesity, diabetes and tooth
decay.
The American Beverage Association, the California Retailers
Association and the California State Outdoor Advertising
Association, which in 2015 had asked for a preliminary injunction to
block the ordinance's implementation, did not immediately respond to
a request for comment on Monday.
San Francisco's city attorney office also did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.
The appeals court decision does not reverse the blocking of the
ordinance, but it suggest a majority of the appeals court judges are
interested in reviewing the ruling.
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A unanimous three-judge 9th Circuit panel in September 2017 found
that the required black-box warning "overwhelmed other visual
elements of the ads" and could violate protected commercial speech.
The judges also said the city's warning requirements were misleading
and deceptive by exclusively focusing on sugar-sweetened beverages
and not the advertisement of other products with equal or greater
amounts of added sugar.
(Reporting by Dan Levine in San Francisco and Tina Bellon in New
York; Editing by Paul Simao)
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