View the Appellate Division Snapple decision

New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. praised a decision by the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, unanimously affirming a trial court’s earlier decision that contracts for the private use of the City’s intellectual property, such as the Snapple marketing agreement, are indeed “concessions” under the City Charter, and so must be approved by the City’s Franchise and Concession Review Committee (FCRC).

The Appellate Division, however, affirmed the parts of the trial court ruling which had held that the comptroller had waived or not properly raised his objections to the failure to obtain FCRC approval of the Snapple marketing agreement.

Comptroller Thompson has argued that the City wrongly circumvented the FCRC and avoided public scrutiny.

“Today’s ruling, going forward, will put an end to back-door deals like Snapple,” Comptroller Thompson said. “From the start, my goal has been to ensure that a deal as flawed as this one would not be repeated without an open, transparent, public review and vote.”

Thompson continued, “My hope is that today’s decision will lead the City to ensure there is public disclosure, review, debate and a vote on future matters that involve private commercial use of the City’s unique and valuable name.”

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