Baltimore’s pollution lawsuit against Coke, Pepsi dismissed

Baltimore’s lawsuit against Pepsi, Coca-Cola and other companies over single-use plastic pollution was dismissed last week, marking the latest defeat after the Maryland Supreme Court earlier this year significantly limited how governments can use the public nuisance doctrine.

The city sued seven corporations in June 2024 for their alleged contribution to pollution, arguing littering plastic bottles and wrappers causes microplastics to seep into the city’s soil and waterways, harming public health and decreasing the tax base.

The defendants were PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, two Frito-Lay entities, W.R. Grace, Mercury Plastics MD, Adell Plastics and Polymershapes Baltimore.

“Here, the Plaintiff is requesting the expansion of public nuisance law to impose responsibility on the Defendants for consumers misusing their lawful products and contaminating the streets, waterways and drinking water,” wrote Audrey Carrión, chief judge and administrative judge of the Baltimore City Circuit Court, in a July 23 order.

“Maryland law does not permit public nuisance liability based on such indirect and generalized societal effects that arguably can go on in perpetuity.”

The law firm Weil, which represented PepsiCo, described the ruling as a “significant victory.”

A spokesperson for Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott stated, “We are disappointed in the court’s ruling and are evaluating our options going forward.”

Carrión last July dismissed most claims in the case, including all of those against the plastics companies. But she waited to rule on the public nuisance claims, pending the Maryland Supreme Court’s ruling in a key case that tested public nuisance law.

In March, the state’s high court issued two rulings limiting the public nuisance doctrine.

It ruled that the lawful distribution of opioids does not count as a public nuisance in a case brought by Anne Arundel County against pharmacy benefit managers and drug distributors. It also dismissed lawsuits by Baltimore and two other local governments against Big Oil companies for their role in climate change.

The rulings had immediate impacts on Baltimore.

In April, the Maryland Supreme Court vacated Baltimore’s $152 million verdict against pharmaceutical companies for their role in the opioid epidemic. The city then dropped the lawsuit but can keep the hundreds of millions it won in pretrial settlements. And after a jury returned a historic $62 million verdict against a gun seller last summer, the city reached a $2 million settlement with the company in April.