McDonald’s – Overlawyered

Court dismisses suit claiming McDonald’s should have discounted hold-the-cheese orders

Walter Olson — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 14:05:37 +0000

“The court slapped down a South Florida couple’s putative class action lawsuit, which sought $5 million in damages and claimed McDonald’s was wrong to force diners to pay for cheese on Quarter Pounder and Double Quarter Pounder burgers, whether or not they wanted it.” [Raychel Lean, Daily Business Review/Law.com, earlier here and here]

Tags: antitrust, class actions, McDonald's

Court dismisses suit claiming McDonald’s should have discounted hold-the-cheese orders is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“… to force consumers to purchase and pay for cheese”

Walter Olson — Sun, 17 Jun 2018 15:59:16 +0000

Kevin Underhill takes a closer and more textual look, though not a more respectful one, at the recent class action over Quarter Pounder pricing at McDonald’s [Lowering the Bar, earlier post and reader discussion]

Tags: class actions, McDonald's

“… to force consumers to purchase and pay for cheese” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

May 30 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 30 May 2018 10:01:33 +0000

“Leave your 13-year-old home alone? Police can take her into custody under Illinois law” [Jeffrey Schwab, Illinois Policy]
So many stars to sue: Huang v. leading Hollywood names [Kevin Underhill, Lowering the Bar]
Morgan Spurlock’s claim in 2004’s Super Size Me of eating only McDonald’s food for a month and coming out as a physical wreck with liver damage was one that later researchers failed to replicate; now confessional memoir sheds further doubt on baseline assertions essential to the famous documentary [Phelim McAleer, WSJ]
If you’ve seen those “1500 missing immigrant kids” stories — and especially if you’ve helped spread them — you might want to check out some of these threads and links [Josie Duffy Rice, Dara Lind, Rich Lowry]
“Antitrust Enforcement by State Attorney Generals,” Federalist Society podcast with Adam Biegel, Vic Domen, Jennifer Thomson, Jeffrey Oliver, and Ian Conner]
“The lopsided House vote for treating assaults on cops as federal crimes is a bipartisan portrait in cowardice.” [Jacob Sullum, more, Scott Greenfield, earlier on hate crimes model for “Protect and Serve Act”]

Tags: antitrust, attorneys general, Child Protective Services, Illinois, immigration law, McDonald's, movies film and videos, obesity, serial litigants

May 30 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“They like a Quarter Pounder without cheese. So they’re suing McDonald’s for $5 million”

Walter Olson — Sat, 26 May 2018 18:11:07 +0000

Some McDonald’s stores used to charge separate prices for Quarter Pounders depending on whether they did or did not include cheese, but then moved to a policy of charging the same price either way. Lawyers have now filed an intended class action claiming that two South Florida clients “have suffered injury” because under the new pricing scheme they “were required to pay for cheese… that they did not want and did not receive.”” [Howard Cohen, Miami Herald]

Tags: class actions, McDonald's

“They like a Quarter Pounder without cheese. So they’re suing McDonald’s for $5 million” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Lawsuit: components of McDonald’s value meal were cheaper separately

Walter Olson — Mon, 26 Dec 2016 05:10:21 +0000

A lawsuit claims a McDonald’s franchisee should pay because the components of its “Extra Value Meal” were cheaper separately [Chicago Tribune]

Tags: advertising, McDonald's

Lawsuit: components of McDonald’s value meal were cheaper separately is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Lawsuit: drive-through-only hours at McDonald’s violate ADA

Walter Olson — Tue, 31 May 2016 04:15:06 +0000

Scott Magee of Louisiana has sued McDonald’s, saying that its policy at some outlets of keeping a late-night drive-through window open after regular restaurant doors are locked violates the Americans with Disabilities Act by unlawfully excluding blind persons who cannot operate a vehicle. [Sun-Times/WMAQ, Chicago]

Tags: disabled rights, McDonald's

Lawsuit: drive-through-only hours at McDonald’s violate ADA is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Food and drink roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 05:05:02 +0000

Arizona considers relaxing its law banning potluck meals outside workplace [KPHO]
Class action says there is starch in McDonald’s mozzarella sticks and wants money for that [Eater]
Small North Carolina brewer pulls out of one market rather than trigger state law forcing it to deal through licensed distributors [Charlotte Business Journal]
Speaking of consumer-unfriendly laws that benefit in-state alcohol distributors with political clout, South Carolina considers adding an “at-rest” law to its three-tier regulatory system [Columbia, S.C. Free Times]
“These decisions are being made by people who are four to five generations removed from food production.” [Oregon rancher Keith Nantz, Washington Post, on federal land policy]
Freakout memes aside, shed no tears for country-of-origin-labeling on meat [K. William Watson/Cato, Jayson Lusk] “Reign of Terroir: How to Resist Europe’s Efforts to Control Common Food Names as Geographical Indications” [K. William Watson/Cato]
“Drunk with power — how Prohibition led to big government” [Julia Vitullo-Martin, New York Post reviewing Lisa McGirr, The War On Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State]

Tags: alcohol, Arizona, beer and brewers, eat drink and be merry, free trade, McDonald's, North Carolina, South Carolina

Food and drink roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Labor roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 05:05:32 +0000

“NLRB: Unions have a right to know employees home phone numbers. If firms don’t have them, they must obtain them.” [@JamesBSherk summarizing Sean Higgins/Washington Examiner on Danbury Hospital case]
Subpoenas get NLRB into redaction fight with McDonald’s [Sean Higgins/Examiner; more on joint-employer battle from International Franchise Association via Connor Wolf, Daily Caller]
George Leef reviews Daniel DiSalvo’s book on public sector unionism, Government Against Itself [Forbes]
“Seattle May Soon Force Uber And Lyft Drivers To Unionize” [Connor Wolf/Caller]
Your periodic reminder that the “add union organizing to protected classes under civil rights law” formula is one of the worst ideas ever [Jon Hyman, Wolf/Caller on Workplace Action for a Growing Economy (WAGE) Act sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.)]
Sen. Orrin Hatch: my proposed Employee Rights Act would “allow workers a greater role in how their union represents them” [Washington Times, background at Washington Examiner]
Philadelphia union extortion and violence episode is a reminder it’s past time to revisit 1973 SCOTUS case of U.S. v. Enmons which tended to give a green light to such things [Mark Mix, Washington Times]

Tags: labor unions, McDonald's, National Labor Relations Board, public employment, Seattle, taxis and ridesharing

Labor roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 24 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 04:05:20 +0000

Judge lifts gag order against Reason magazine in commenter subpoena case, and U.S. Attorney’s Office for Manhattan is shown to have behaved even more outrageously than had been thought [Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch, Ken White/Popehat (magistrate’s approval of gag order looks an awful lot like rubber stamp; AUSA directly contacted represented party), Paul Alan Levy (when bloggers push back, gag orders tend to get lifted), Matt Welch again with coverage roundup]
Maryland authorities clear “free range” Meitiv family of all remaining charges in kids-walking-alone neglect case [Donna St. George, Washington Post]
Disgraced politico Monica Conyers sues McDonald’s over cut finger [Detroit News]
American Law Institute considers redefining tort of “battery” to protect the “unusually sensitive”, Prof. Ronald Rotunda on problems with that [W$J]
“Did you ever falsely represent yourself as an attorney?” asks the lawyer to her client in front of reporter [Eric Turkewitz]
Feds endorse alcohol-sniff interlock as new-car option, critics say eventual goal is to force it into all cars, assuming rise of self-driving cars doesn’t moot the issue first [Jon Schmitz/Tribune News Service]
Echoes of CPSIA: regulatory danger is back for smaller soap and cosmetic makers as big companies, safety groups combine to push Personal Care Products Safety Act [Handmade Cosmetic Alliance, Elizabeth Scalia, Ted Balaker, Reason TV and followup (Sen. Dianne Feinstein objects to “nanny of month” designation, points to threshold exemptions for smaller businesses), earlier on predecessor bills described as “CPSIA for cosmetics”, National Law Review (panic over recent NYT nail salon expose might contribute to momentum)]

Tags: American Law Institute, Child Protective Services, cosmetics, Detroit, ethics, McDonald's, subpoenas

June 24 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Disabled rights roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 04:05:54 +0000

Per The Economist, long-awaited Justice Department rules decreeing ADA accessibility for websites (earlier here, here, etc.) expected any day now, “in June. For example, each picture must have text describing it, so that screen-reader programs can tell blind people what is there.” Individual enforcement actions, as against Peapod, aren’t waiting [DoJ press release] Settlement with MOOC firm signals DOJ plans to deal with online education providers [Cooley] Contributor believes it’s a snap to include online captioning in all online Harvard and MIT courses, so what’re they waiting for? [Time]
Rest of the Economist article is of interest too, especially on ADA filing mills in Florida and elsewhere;
In Sheehan v. San Francisco, Ninth Circuit created right to ADA accommodation in confrontations with law enforcers, SCOTUS reversed on other (qualified immunity) grounds [Mark Pulliam, City Journal; Richard Re, Prawfs]
Commemorations of 25th anniversary of the ADA — here’s what I had to say about the 20th — include plans “to hold [various Chicago institutions] publicly accountable for their commitments” to, inter alia, “increase civic engagement around disability issues” [Michael Waterstone, Prawfs]
Sacramento: “Squeeze Inn owner joins fight against costly ADA lawsuits” [KCRA]
Spread of fake service dog paraphernalia alarms groups that work with actual service dogs [BBC]
Intended class-action plaintiff sues McDonald’s over new style Coca-Cola Freestyle dispensers, saying touchscreen format unfair to disabled users [BigClassAction.com]

Tags: ADA filing mills, Coca-Cola, colleges and universities, disability & schools, disabled rights, Florida, McDonald's, service animals, web accessibility

Disabled rights roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system