A federal judge has ruled that a group of Burger King customers can proceed with a lawsuit over the size of their Whoppers.
In a filing Monday, Florida District Judge Roy K. Altman denied a motion to dismiss the case against the fast food giant, which has been accused of falsely advertising its products.
“After careful review – and drawing all reasonable inferences for the Plaintiffs – we find it plausible to believe that some reasonable consumers could be deceived by [Burger King Corporation] BKC’s advertisements,” the judge ruled.
The plaintiff's allegations "go beyond mere exaggeration or puffery,” Altman added. The original suit is being brought by 19 customers from 13 different states.
“Each of our Plaintiffs purchased BKC products at Burger King stores in their home states, and each came away disappointed by the incongruity between what they received and what they expected based on BKC’s advertisements,” Altman’s ruling stated.
“Most reasonable consumers would be vexed” by the differences in the advertisements, it added.
Though the motion to dismiss the suit has been denied, a date has not been set for the jury trial – as requested by the plaintiffs.
According to the original lawsuit, Burger King began to “materially overstate the size of its burgers” in its ads in September 2017.
The corporation “advertises its burgers as large burgers compared to competitors and containing oversized meat patties and ingredients that overflow over the bun to make it appear that the burgers are approximately 35 percent larger in size, and contain more than double the meat, than the actual burger,” the suit states.
The lawsuit, obtained by The Independent, contains side-by-side images of the brightly colored, bursting advertisement burgers next to sad-looking, real-life photos taken by the customers.
Burger King overstates the size of “nearly every menu item in its current advertisements,” the suit claims.
Included on the lawsuit’s list of “overstated menu items” are: the Impossible Whopper, Big King, Single Quarter Pound King, Bacon King, Double Whopper, Triple Whopper With Cheese, Whopper Jr., Bacon Double Cheeseburger, Double Cheeseburger, Bacon Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger, Hamburger, Whopper Melt, Bacon Whopper Melt, Spicy Whopper Melt, Breakfast Bacon King, Fully Loaded Croisann’Wich, Double Sausage, and the Egg & Cheese Croissan’Wich.
In response to Monday’s ruling a spokesperson for Burger King said that the plaintiffs’ claims were false, adding: "The flame-grilled beef patties portrayed in our advertising are the same patties used in the millions of burgers we serve to Guests across the U.S.”
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