If you’re disappointed with a restaurant meal, perhaps you’ll leave a negative review. Some Burger King customers went further, bringing a lawsuit against the Whopper-maker.
Thanks to a judge’s ruling this week, that suit can move forward.
U.S. District Judge Roy Altman rejected Burger King Corp.’s bid to dismiss the complaint brought by plaintiffs from several states. They want to sue on behalf of a class of people “who purchased a Burger King menu item based on false and misleading advertising concerning the size and/or the amount of ingredients contained in said menu item.”
The Florida judge wrote that “the main issue before us is relatively straightforward: Would a ‘reasonable consumer’ be deceived by BKC’s in-store advertisements?” He found it “plausible to believe that some reasonable consumers could be deceived by BKC’s advertisements.” He noted that it’s still a preliminary stage of the litigation at which deference to the plaintiffs’ claims is required.
A Burger King spokesperson called the plaintiffs’ claims “false.”
The judge’s written order, published Monday, featured side-by-side photo comparisons of the company’s burgers as-advertised next to actual, slimmer Whoppers and Big Kings. Altman was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump, a noted McDonald’s fan. He said in his order that he will set a status conference to discuss a schedule for next steps in the case. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in the Trump administration’s legal cases.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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