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.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    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.”

    • OrteilGenou@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

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

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

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

      • madcaesar@lemmy.world
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        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.

    • vivadanang@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        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.

    • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • VinnieFarsheds@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • grayman@lemmy.world
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          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.

        • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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          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.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        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.