Obesity suit against McDonald’s dismissed

A US judge has thrown out a lawsuit that accused the McDonald’s of spreading obesity through unhealthy foods served by the global food chain.

Fat chance: The suit's dismissal comes as a huge relief for McDonald's

US District Judge Robert Sweet on Thursday dismissed the suit, saying the plaintiffs had failed to establish that McDonald’s used misleading advertising to lure children into eating foods that made them fat.

“The plaintiffs have made no explicit allegations that they witnessed any particular deceptive advertisement and they have not provided McDonald’s with enough information to determine whether its products are the cause of the alleged injuries,” the judge said.

“Finally, the one advertisement which plaintiffs implicitly allege to have caused. their injuries is objectively non-deceptive,” he said.

The latest dismissal came after the judge had previously dismissed the plaintiff’s original case but allowed them to submit a new filing with information backing up their allegations that the food chain used unfair advertising to lure customers.

The case had raised fears in the food industry of a new wave of tobacco-like litigation against restaurants and manufacturers.

Health hazards

In dismissing the original case, Sweet had said in January the plaintiffs could amend the suit with information backing their claim that diners have no idea what is really in their food or that the products have allegedly become more harmful because of processing.

Although the plaintiff’s lawyer initially refilled the suit with the allegation that consumers were unaware of the health hazards of processed food, he dropped the claim later.

The two plaintiffs in the case, which sought class action status, were born in 1984 and 1988.

McDonald’s lawyers had argued that they were too young to have seen or be affected by the 1987 print ads attached as exhibits in the suit. 

Source: News Agencies