Subway was hit with a class-action lawsuit on Monday that claims the chain’s ads “materially overstate” the quantity of meat and cheese in its sandwiches.
The lawsuit, on behalf of the Queens resident Anna Tollison, asks justices within the US district courtroom for the jap district of New York to certify the declare as a category motion.
Tollison claims she bought a steak and cheese sandwich from a Subway location in New York in August for $7.61 after which realized that the chain’s adverts confirmed a sandwich containing no less than 200% extra meat than she and different shoppers would finally obtain.
The lawsuit claims the pictures of sandwiches utilized in Subway’s advertising and marketing falsely promote how a lot meat the steak and cheese sandwich incorporates.
Subway, with 37,000 places within the US, was bought by the Atlanta-based non-public fairness agency Roark Capital in April.
The lawsuit claims Subway, greatest recognized for its foot-long sandwiches, engages in related techniques for “many different sandwiches”, together with its tacky garlic steak.
The ads, the lawsuit states, “are unfair and financially damaging to shoppers as they’re receiving a product that’s materially decrease in worth than what’s being represented”.
It provides that that is deeply regarding due to inflation and excessive meals costs, and lower-income Subway prospects are struggling financially.
However related lawsuits introduced by the identical legislation agency in opposition to McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Taco Bell have been dismissed simply final yr. The same lawsuit in opposition to Burger King is pending in federal courtroom in Miami.
Subway was additionally hit with a class-action lawsuit claiming that its foot-long sandwiches have been lower than a foot lengthy. In 2017, a decide threw the case out saying it sought “solely nugatory advantages for the category and yields solely charges for sophistication counsel isn’t any higher than a racket and ought to be dismissed out of hand”.
A yr earlier, a Wisconsin federal decide authorized a settlement requiring Subway to undertake high quality management measures that, he stated, have been in line with “the realities of baking bread” so {that a} 6 or 12in sandwich got here out at that size.
A number of years in the past, a courtroom within the Republic of Eire dominated that the bread served at Subway couldn’t in truth be outlined as bread due to its excessive sugar content material.
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