HARRISBURG, Pa. — Philadelphia’s tax on soda and other sweetened drinks was upheld Wednesday when the state’s highest court rejected a challenge to the law by merchants and the beverage industry.

The Supreme Court ruled the 1.5-cent-per-ounce levy is aimed at distributors and dealer-level transactions and does not illegally duplicate another existing tax.

Meanwhile, restaurants in Baltimore are now officially barred from including sodas and other sugary drinks on kids’ menus, according to a city ordinance that went into effect Wednesday.

Baltimore is now the largest US city and the first on the East Coast to pass such a measure, said Shawn McIntosh, director of the Maryland chapter of the Sugar Free Kids advocacy group. Seven California cities and Lafayette, Colo., have enacted similar ordinances, according to health officials.

In Pennsylvania, a four-justice majority said the state taxes sales at the retail level, a cost that falls directly on consumers, but the beverage tax applies to distributor and dealer-level transactions.

‘‘The payer of the beverage tax is the distributor, or in certain circumstances, dealers, but never the purchasing consumer,’’ wrote Chief Justice Thomas Saylor for the majority.

Philadelphia’s enactment of the soda tax has inspired several other cities around the country to pass similar measures.

The beverage tax raised nearly $79 million in 2017 over its first 12 months in place.

Both dissenting justices said the tax does duplicate taxes already in place on retail sales of soda in the city, violating the Depression-era Sterling Act.

If fully passed on to consumers, Philadelphia’s soda tax represents an increase of $1.44 on a six-pack of 16-ounce bottles.

Associated Press