this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
1403 points (98.5% liked)

Today I Learned

18072 readers
795 users here now

What did you learn today? Share it with us!

We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.

** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**



Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.



Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.

If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.

For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.

Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.



Partnered Communities

You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.

Community Moderation

For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

During the trial it was revealed that McDonald’s knew that heating their coffee to this temperature would be dangerous, but they did it anyways because it would save them money. When you serve coffee that is too hot to drink, it will take much longer for a person to drink their coffee, which means that McDonald’s will not have to give out as many free refills of coffee. This policy by the fast food chain is the reason the jury awarded $2.7 million dollars in punitive damages in the McDonald's hot coffee case. Punitive damages are meant to punish the defendant for their inappropriate business practice.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 130 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It was used as the definitive "Frivolous Lawsuit", but... in reality McDonalds just told Media Companies "Make us look like the victim here, or we're pulling our precious advertising dollars."

[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The picture of that poor woman's thighs is all you need to see to know this was not a frivolous suit

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Also, McD's had years of complaints from their own store managers that the coffee was too damn hot.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Important to note that the women initially just asked McDonald's to pay for her treatment, and they told her to get fucked.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just wish the victims lawyers had responded to those claims with the pictures of that poor woman's third degree burns. she suffered horrifically and for years.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fortunately we have actually come aways since then, if a company tried that kind of stunt today, Not only would they be called out for it online, but they would also likely catch a second lawsuit for defamation.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

hopefully, she deserved so much better.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

And media did a bang-up job portraying the victim as a petulant child who is too dumb to drink coffee. Classic corporate Uno reverse card.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I thought this was indeed one of those ridiculous American lawsuits. Until I heard of the injuries later. No I would never wish this settlement money for myself if it included those injuries on that part of my body. Justice was served to the McD.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Yes... Melted labia is not something I was expecting. $2.7M seems too low of a punitive damage for the big arches clowns.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It's more the fact that McD was aware that their coffee strategy was a ticking time bomb due to many complaints from staff and customers, but they didn't fix it.

IIRC the reason they heated the coffee that much in the first place was that it prolonged the time the coffee tasted fresh, so they didn't have to make a fresh batch as often. Aka more profit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

The good news is the only way they're able to get away with it was because the internet hadn't caught on as much, and because this was before the media was afraid of catching defamation lawsuits.