Is Burger King selling you a Whopper of a tale? A juicy class action lawsuit filed in March 2023 alleges that the fast-food chain’s signature hamburger contains 35% less meat than the company’s ads suggest. On August 23, a federal judge in Florida allowed the lawsuit, Coleman et al v. Burger King Corporation, to move forward based on the company’s in-store marketing and menus. Filled with mouthwatering legal issues, the Burger King case is one of several class action suits filed by the same law firm, including similar cases against Arby’s, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s, each alleging that the fast-food purveyors falsely represented the size of their meat-based products.
Intellectual property expert Louis Tompros, a lecturer on law at Harvard and a partner at WilmerHale, says that class action false advertising lawsuits often, but not always, play an important role in compensating consumers and preventing companies from committing further harm. In a recent conversation, Tompros discussed the Burger King lawsuit, how class action lawsuits work, and the legal concept of “puffery” in advertising.
