Archives for the 'lawsuits' tag
Any Excuse to Mention ‘Tapeheads’ is a Good One
Roscoe’s, the famed LA-area fried chicken and waffles chain, and Rosscoe’s, a new standalone fried chicken and waffles outlet in Chicago, reached a settlement today that will force the latter to change its name. More on that here.
This calls for multimedia! Sadly, the great Nike commercial featuring George Gervin and Chris Webber–comparing hoops to chicken and waffles–isn’t online. Fortunately, though, the great fake Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles ad from the cult film Tapeheads is:
Note the 18 second mark, where the ad’s star flashes the Crispy logo.
Chocolate Lawsuit Stinks Like Hershey Highway Robbery
Think you’re paying too much for a candy bar? Regional grocer Giant Eagle does, and they’re suing the manufacturers to put a stop to this chocolate chicanery.
Hershey Co., Mars Inc., Nestle SA and Cadbury Schweppes Plc are accused of fixing chocolate candy prices in the U.S. in a lawsuit filed by a Pittsburgh supermarket chain.
Giant Eagle Inc. claims in a suit filed March 26 that the companies and a Canadian wholesalers’ network, Itwal Inc., conspired to set artificially high prices for chocolates in violation of U.S. antitrust law.
The companies’ profits have fallen “because of increasing health concerns, and changing consumer preferences,” Giant Eagle claimed in its complaint, filed in federal court in Pittsburgh. “In the face of waning demand, defendants responded by instituting uniform parallel price increases” in the U.S. beginning in 2002, Giant Eagle claimed. (Ed.: emphasis mine)
Giant Eagle said in the complaint that it paid more than $200 million to buy chocolate bars, boxed chocolates and seasonal chocolate candy from the companies since 2002, at illegally inflated prices. Giant Eagle seeks unspecified damages, which may be tripled under antitrust law if the claim is successful.
More here. Suit here (PDF). The U.S. Dept. of Justice is also probing alleged price fixing by chocolate makers.
My 2 cents? Giant Eagle is full of crap. By noting chocolate bars’ “health concerns” and “waning demand,” the suit does nothing but tarnish the very products Giant Eagle sells. Sour grapes, if you ask me.
If the candy costs you too much, is unhealthy, and doesn’t sell very well, why the hell are you selling it, Giant Eagle? As for the U.S. government, the idea that there is such a thing as chocolate price fixing, and that this is something government attorneys would need to concern themselves with, shows just how big Big Brother really is.
Anton Ego Green-Lighted to Un-Retire
A judge in Ireland has overturned a lower court ruling that awarded damages to a restaurant owner whose restaurant scored a poor review from critic and chef Caroline Workman in The Irish News, reports the Times Online.
Restaurant critics, and newspaper proprietors, were celebrating yesterday after a judge upheld their rights to publish unflattering reviews of bad food and lousy service.
Sir Brian Kerr, the Northern Ireland Lord Chief Justice, overturned the award of £25,000 to Goodfellas pizza restaurant in West Belfast against The Irish News.
[...]
The newspaper’s restaurant critic, Caroline Workman, criticised the quality of the food, the staff and the joyless, smoky atmosphere of Mr Convery’s premises. The jury, hearing the case more than a year ago, agreed with Mr Convery that her review was defamatory, damaging and hurtful and he was awarded £25,000 in damages.
A sampling from Workman’s original review:
After one ring of squid . . . it became clear the dishes were made with the cheapest ingredients on the market”
“Our main courses arrived in as much time as it took the chef in view to rip open three blue industrial-size bags of processed cheese”
“The staff have no more time to be involved with their customers than those in a motorway cafe”
Critics talk about the secrets to plying their trade here, here and here.
Why Does the Whopper Hate our Freedom?
Abominable fat-suit king John Banzhaf has some serious competition, in the form of Lawrence Gostin, who teaches law just up the road from where Banzhaf does the same. Gostin says we worry way too much, and so gives us… another thing to worry about.
“Ever since September 11, we’ve been lurching from one crisis to the next, which has really frightened the public,” Gostin told AFP later.
“While we’ve been focusing so much attention on that, we’ve had this silent epidemic of obesity that’s killing millions of people around the world, and we’re devoting very little attention to it and a negligible amount of money.”
The excellent Center for Consumer Freedom takes Gostin to task. And in spite of his Osama bin Whopper headline, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Patrick McIlheran gets it, too.
If you generally eat healthy but make only an occasional trip to fast-food joints, the only junk-food related dangers you’ll face will happen when your friend gashes you with a samurai sword at BK.
