Flowers Foods presents oral argument before U.S. Supreme Court on scope of "transportation worker" exemption under Federal Arbitration Act

Client(s) Flowers Foods, Inc.

Jones Day represents Flowers Foods, Inc. and its subsidiaries in a Supreme Court case regarding the scope of the Federal Arbitration Act's exemption for transportation workers. Under the FAA, courts are generally required to enforce arbitration agreements, but transportation workers who are "engaged in foreign or interstate commerce" are exempted.

Independent business owners who market, sell and distribute Flowers Foods' baked goods within defined geographic areas in a single state sought to pursue wage-and-hour claims against Flowers Foods in federal court. They claimed that their arbitration agreements with Flowers were unenforceable under the FAA's transportation worker exemption. After the Tenth Circuit concluded that they qualify for that exemption, Jones Day persuaded the Supreme Court to grant certiorari and resolve a disagreement among the lower courts.

Flowers Foods, Inc. v. Brock, No. 24-935 (U.S.)