Poppi Gut Healthy Marketing Deal’s Attorneys’ Fees Get Reduced

The plaintiff’s attorneys behind a class action over the marketed health benefits of Poppi soda aren’t entitled to a larger-than-usual share of the settlement, a federal judge ruled.

Class counsel will receive $2.225 million for their work in bringing the case and negotiating an $8.9 million settlement with PepsiCo Inc. unit VNGR Beverage LLC, equal to the 25% benchmark typically used to determine reasonable attorneys fees, Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. ruled. The firms, Bursor & Fisher PA and Gutride Safier LLP, had asked for $2.67 million, or 30% of the settlement fund.

Though they cited several cases where courts ...