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SANDWICH GIANT SUBWAY has agreed to settle a potentially enormous class action lawsuit over its “foot-long” sandwiches, which don’t always measure exactly one foot.
In 2013, nine separate lawsuits were consolidated into a case before the US District Court in the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
The suit accused Subway of:
[A] pervasive pattern of fraudulent, deceptive and otherwise improper advertising, sales and marketing practices that Defendant…engaged in and continues to engage in regarding the length of purported “Footlong” submarine sandwiches (“subs”), which are a core product sold by Defendant’s SUBWAY® restaurants.
In reality, Defendant’s “Footlong” subs are not one foot, or 12 inches, in length.
The lawsuit claimed Subway restaurants had been:
…disseminating false and misleading information via television commercials, Internet websites and postings, point of purchase advertisements and national print advertisements, all of which are intended to trick unsuspecting consumers, including Plaintiffs and other members of the proposed Class, into believing that they are receiving more food for their money than they actually are receiving.
Subway, which has 151 outlets in Ireland, had argued that inconsistencies in baking its rolls occasionally led to a variety of lengths, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
However, a mediation process involving a retired US Magistrate Judge brought both sides to an agreement earlier this month, after more than two years of wrangling.
Subway will make changes to how it bakes its bread and has agreed to “use a tool for measuring bread…to help ensure that the bread sold to customers is either 6 or 12 inches long.”
The company will also do monthly compliance checks in its 24,000 US outlets, involving samples of 10 rolls each time, to include “both the Italian and 9-Grain Wheat loaves.”
In response to the settlement, Subway’s franchisor, Doctor’s Associates Inc. (DAI) released a statement noting that:
The Court has not made any findings that any of DAI’s marketing or practices were improper or unlawful.
The company has also agreed to pay lawyers’ fees and damages to nine named people.
After fees are paid, the Associated Press estimates those who started the lawsuit in the first place will receive no more than $1,000 each.
In addition to the original nine plaintiffs, however, the class action is being opened to:
All persons in the United States who purchased a Six inch or Footlong sandwich at a Subway® restaurant any time between January 1, 2003 and [2 October, 2015].
Which, as presiding Judge Lynn Adelman notes, amounts to “a sizeable portion of the American population.”
These people will, obviously, have to present proof of purchase, and they will not be eligible for any compensation.
They will just have their names formally attached to the lawsuit, if they apply by 15 December.
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Have none of you seen or remembered the HSBC ads? It’s all about known your clients needs like the number 13 is lucky in china, chrysanthemum in Italy are associated with loss and sadness and laundering a drug cartels money is traditional in Mexico, HSBC taking you places. Now that’s customer service!!
Number 8 is lucky in china… Obviously ads don’t work all the time ;-)
Number 9 is the most sought after number for people of Chinese extraction in Thailand,as 9 is the luckiest of all Chinese numbers.
It’s Lord Green, not Brown.
Quite right!
To maintain stability fiat currency systems require constant monetary expansion. To facilate constant monetary expansion bankers need a constantly expanding portfolio of products and enterprises to invest in. Initially, they can invest in proprietary areas, but ultimately end up investing in dodgy derivatives and Mexican banks. Where possible politicans, central bankers and regulators will turn a blind eye.
” Today’s worldwide paper-, or “fiat-,” money regime is an economically and socially destructive scheme — with far-reaching and seriously harmful economic and societal consequences, effects that extend beyond what most people would imagine.
Fiat money is inflationary; it benefits a few at the expense of many others; it causes boom-and-bust cycles; it leads to overindebtedness; it corrupts society’s morals; and it will ultimately end in a depression on a grand scale.”
Thorsten Pollet
More Capitalism corruption.
“Religion is the only thing that keeps the poor from killing the rich.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
Is Prince Hamley a new character in a Toy story movie?
Nick…..You forgot to mention that, Lord Brown, the current UK Trade Minister was chairman of HSBC when all this was happening.nAs an aside…..you’ve got a typo…..Hamley…….Hamlet?n@clonbrusk
Jaysus what next!?
By the time my grandson is 40, there will be a world of over 10 Billion people. Is Market capitalism really the most appropriate system for such an immense amount of people? Surely this system will lead only to wars, disease, famine…the horsemen of the apocalypse….. When shall we start thinking of a new system to protect and not destroy humanity?
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