Lawsuit Claims McDonald's Overtaxed For Sweet Drinks

(RTTNews) - A lawsuit filed against McDonald's alleges the burger giant of overcharging customers by wrongly calculating sales tax on the sweetened beverages it sells in Cook County.

The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court by Chicago resident Yvan Wojtecki.

The Cook County's new beverage tax went into effect last week. Under the tax, drinks in a bottle or from a fountain machine are taxable.

Wojtecki claims that he bought food and a sweetened beverage at a McDonald's restaurant and paid 23 cents under the county's Sweetened Beverage Tax.

However, Wojtecki points out that McDonald's added the 23 cent tax to the sub total of the food and beverages and then the subtotal was taxed again at the county's sales tax rate.