Legal cases of McDonald's

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In the high profile McLibel Case, McDonald's took two anti-McDonald's campaigners, Helen Steel and Dave Morris, to court for a trial lasting two and a half years—the longest in English legal history and part of a 20-year battle—after the pair distributed leaflets critical of the company in London's streets. McDonald's won the case in the U.K. High Court, and were awarded £60,000 damages, which later was reduced to £40,000 by the Court of Appeal. However, the court ruled in favour of a number of the defendants' claims, including that McDonald's low rates of pay depress rates across the fast-food industry. Steel and Morris then made a separate but related claim against the U.K. Government in the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that the lack of access to legal aid and the heavy burden of proof that lay with them to prove their claims (rather than McDonald's, the claimants, having to prove that the claims were false) under U.K. libel law breached the right to a fair trial and freedom of expression. The ECHR ruled against the U.K. Government, which subsequently introduced legislation to change the libel laws to remedy the defects highlighted by the ECHR judgment. The libel charge and fine were overturned in an appeals case - see McLibel case.

In March 2006, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a group of South Florida farmworkers, began a campaign demanding better wages for the people who pick the tomatoes used by the fast-food company. The groups criticisms are not solely targetted at McDonald's and in fact McDonald's is the second target after the group saw victory against Taco Bell.

McDonald's has also been criticized for its approach to preserving its image and copyrights. It has threatened many foodservice businesses with legal action unless they drop the Mc or Mac from their trading name. In one noteworthy case, McDonald's sued a Scottish café owner called McDonald, even though the business in question dated back over a century. Other legal battles include:

Pursuing a 26-year legal action against an Illinois restaurant owned by a man named Ronald McDonald (opened in 1956).
In 1994, McDonald's successfully forced Elizabeth McCaughey of the San Francisco Bay Area to change the trading name of her coffeeshop McCoffee, which had operated under that name for 17 years.
In 1994, McDonald's sued a restaurant in Kingston, Jamaica, because of trademark infringement, although it had opened in 1971, before McDonald's entered the Jamaican market.
In 1996, McDonald's lost a legal battle at the Danish Supreme Court to force Allan Pedersen, a mincemeat sandwich vendor, to drop his shop name McAllan.
In 1996, McDonald's forced Scottish sandwich shop owner Mary Blair of Fenny Stratford, Buckinghamshire to drop McMunchies as her trading name.
In 2001, McDonald's lost a nine-year legal action against Frank Yuen of McChina Wok Away, Chinese takeaway outlets in various part of the UK.

In South Africa, McDonald's had to battle against the country's trademark laws, which stated that a registered trademark had to be used within a certain period of time. This resulted in a local company announcing plans to launch its own fast-food chain using the McDonald's name, although the South African High Court eventually ruled in McDonald's favor.

In July 2001, McDonald's was fined £12,400 by British magistrates for illegally employing and over-working child labor in one of its London restaurants. This is thought to be one of the largest fines imposed on a company for breaking laws relating to child working conditions.

Also in 2001, Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation included scathing criticism of McDonald's' business practices. Among the critiques are allegations that McDonald's (along with other companies within the fast-food industry) uses its political influence to increase their own profits at the expense of people's health and the social conditions of its workers. The book also brings into question McDonald's advertisement techniques where it targets children taking advantage of their innocence. While the book does mention other fast-food chains, it focuses primarily on McDonald's.

In 2003, a [ruling] by the UK Advertising Standards Authority determined that the corporation had acted in breach of the codes of practice in describing how its french fries were prepared. A McDonald's print ad stated that "after selecting certain potatoes" "we peel them, slice them, fry them and that's it." It showed a picture of a potato in a McDonald's fries box. In fact the product was sliced, pre-fried, sometimes had dextrose added, was then frozen, shipped, and re-fried and then had salt added.

In June 2004, the UK's Private Eye reported that McDonald's was handing out meal vouchers, balloons, and toys to children in pediatric wards. This was especially controversial as the report was made within weeks of a British Government report stating that the present generation may be the first to die before their parents due to spiraling obesity in the British population.

Also in 2004, Morgan Spurlock's documentary film Super Size Me produced negative publicity for McDonald's, with allegations that McDonald's food was contributing heavily to the [link] epidemic of obesity in American society, and failing to provide nutritional information about its food for its customers. For 30 days Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald's (supersizing whenever asked) and by the end of the month Spurlock reported mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and had gained 24.5 pounds (11.11 kg). Subsequent to the showing of the film at the Sundance Film Festival, but before its cinematic release, McDonald's phased out its Supersize meal option and began offering several healthier menu items, though no link to the film was cited in this decision. They also began a practice of putting all nutritional information for all menu items in light grey small print on the reverse of their tray liners. Several other people later similarly ate only at McDonald's for a month, but by choosing menu items more judiciously (Spurlock ate everything on the menu at least once, always accepted upsizing requests of McDonald's employees, and continued to eat after he was full) and exercising frequently, showed no ill effects. Merab Morgan, a North Carolina woman, was even able to lose weight. She claimed that the transparency of nutritional information made it easy to control her daily caloric intake.

The company has progressively introduced a line of salads and vegetarian oriented items in recent years, with the result that the menu is probably now among the most varied in existence for franchised convenience restaurants of McDonald's type. However, a large amount of anecdotal evidence exists which suggests that hygiene standards with regards to food preparation can be inconsistently applied by individual McDonald's restaurants, despite the universal policy being strict.

UK adult comic Viz sued McDonalds over allegations that their 'Top Tips' advertising campaign plagerised the name and format of a regular feature in their magazine.

External Links

[Food industry fights losing battle for unhealthy fries] The Daily Cardinal

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