Hans van Zijst

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

Professional nerd and grammar nazi, writes in Dutch and English. Can read some German, French and Spanish too. Learning русский.

Location:: Netherlands

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 01:49:04 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

Only in America...

5 million plus "punitive damages" because your mac-and-cheese can't be prepared in 3,5 minutes.

Ramirez’s lawyers argue that the company sells the product at “a substantial price premium” while using its “misleading” marketing of “‘ready in 3½ minutes,’ which instantly catches the eye of all reasonable consumers.”

This implies that she's a "reasonable consumer", or am I missing something fundamental here?

How many of my American followers thinks this kind of a lawsuit is ok? I think it's completely bonkers, and I can imagine that a Dutch judge would ridicule her and send her off with a warning to not waste the court's time.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/28/business/florida-kraft-velveeta-mac-and-cheese-lawsuit/index.html

show all 4 comments

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 10:00:33 +0100

Vancha :fedora:

vancha@fosstodon.org

@thisisfilber7 @hans I'd assume the $5 million is a little excessive for a box of Mac and cheese, even with the price premium"...

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 12:11:37 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

@John Wehrle I don't know the details either, but how can you demand 5 million if not several people have died? Sure, she may have a point about the misleading 3,5 minutes, wouldn't be the first case (or last).

What I think is absurd is that she wants that much money over something that can never have caused her damage anywhere near that amount. Sure, if you ("as any reasonable consumer") blindly trust on the 3,5 minutes claim and you then miss your train because you didn't have time to eat it anymore, you have some damage. But if you let a 5 million deal depend on the time you need to prepare dinner, you're doing it wrong.

I can understand it if someone asked a judge to tell Heinz to change their claims and maybe fine them for misleading, but going for 5 million is simply greed.

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 12:13:17 +0100

Hans van Zijst

hans@social.woefdram.nl

@Vancha :fedora: @FILBERT :tux: "A little", yes ;-)