Suit claiming Burger King showed misleading photos of burgers can go forward, judge rules
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Miami in March 2022, alleges that Burger King deceived customers by using photos in its ads and on in-store menu boards showing burger patties substantially larger than what were actually served.
Whopper and Big King patties in the ads were 35% larger and double the meat that consumers received, the lawsuit alleges.
The photos began appearing in 2017, the lawsuit says, replacing photos that showed smaller patties.
A spokesperson for the Miami-based fast food chain said following the ruling, 'The plaintiffs' claims are false. The flame-grilled beef patties portrayed in our advertising are the same patties used in the millions of burgers we serve to guests across the U.S.'
U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman said that at this stage of the case, he was required to assume that the plaintiffs' claims were true. Under that assumption, he said he agreed with the plaintiffs' assertion that Burger King's 'advertisements — when compared to other, similar advertisements — have a greater capacity to deceive or mislead reasonable consumers.'
Altman rejected Burger King's request that he adopt the reasoning of two suits filed in New York by the same law firm against Wendy's and McDonald's that were ultimately dismissed by a judge who found them 'unreasonable and inadequately pleaded.'
While those suits similarly claimed that the restaurants advertised their products with pictures that looked more appealing than what customers were served, they failed to claim that the chains created a 'misleading impression about the size of their meals' by using more meat in their ads than they serve in their stores, Altman pointed out.
Those suits instead claimed that the chains created the ads using an identical amount of uncooked meat — a 'concession' that the New York court found 'fatal' to the lawsuits' claims.
Altman's ruling that the Burger King photos had 'a greater capacity to deceive or mislead reasonable consumers' than the photos in the other cases seemed more 'definitive' than when he ruled against dismissing the case in 2023, said the lead plaintiffs attorney, Anthony Russo of the Boca Raton-based Russo Firm.
In the 2023 ruling, Altman said he favored leaving that 'determination to the consumers themselves' if the case proceeds to a jury.
Russo said the firm will next focus on certifying their case as a class-action claim, which could potentially attract tens of thousands of new plaintiffs.
After that takes place, the firm will proceed to the discovery phase, where it must prove its assertion that customers were deceived because the burger patties in the photos were larger than what Burger King served, Russo said.
___
© 2025 South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
a few seconds ago
- Associated Press
Managers miffed at offshore sports betting on Little League World Series
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — This week, as usual, sports bettors can get action on MLB games from U.S.-based gambling sites. Meanwhile, at least a couple of offshore bookmakers are offering odds on games at the Little League World Series. Team managers, and Little League itself, are not pleased. 'I'm not a fan,' said South Carolina's manager Dave Bogan, noting he goes to Las Vegas twice a year. 'It's just not appropriate, it feels dirty, quite honestly.' In news conferences throughout the Little League World Series, U.S. team managers have voiced their displeasure with gambling on their games — players at the tournament top out at 12 years old. Little League International also released a statement last week denouncing sports betting on youth competition. 'Little League is a trusted place where children are learning the fundamentals of the games and all the important life lessons that come with having fun, celebrating teamwork, and playing with integrity,' the statement said. 'No one should be exploiting the success and failures of children playing the game they love for their own personal gain.' BetOnline and Bovada are among the offshore sites offering daily odds on LLWS matchups. They are both based outside the United States and are both illegal to use in the U.S. and not subject to its laws. BetOnline is located in Panama and has offered sports betting and gambling since 1991. Bovada, a Costa Rica-based company, joined the scene in 2011. BetOnline's brand manager Dave Mason said in a post on X that BetOnline is making the moneylines itself and that it 'ain't easy.' He has posted odds on X throughout the tournament. Jon Solomon, the community impact director of Project Play, an initiative of the Aspen Institute's Sports and Society program, said there are negative effects on young players whose games are the subject of betting. Such wagering, he says, is fairly common. In 2018, Project Play surveyed Mobile County, Alabama, and found that '26% of surveyed youth said they had played in a game where adults bet money on who won or the final score,' according to its State of Play report. The report said that tackle football, basketball and baseball were more likely to be gambled on by adults according to the children surveyed. 'This is just, you know, bets that usually sort of happen, maybe at the field, or in the gym,' Solomon said in a phone interview. 'Kids are already facing a lot of pressure in youth sports these days. It is a highly commercialized industry with a lot of people already making a lot of money.' When gambling is involved in the actual performance of the game, Solomon believes the pressure can be even higher. The report showed that gambling 'was witnessed by both boys (33%) and girls (19%).' In professional and collegiate sports, Solomon noted instances of athletes getting harassed by gamblers — think any kicker who missed a last-second field goal. 'Now imagine the stakes for a more impressionable child, right, or teenager?' Solomon said. 'It's so unhealthy and so unneeded, and I think if anyone is betting on youth sports, they should seriously seek help because you have a serious addiction most likely.' Hawaii Little League manager Gerald Oda is adamant that gambling on these games takes away from the 'beauty' of Little League. 'This is the only tournament where you're representing your local community,' Oda said. 'It's that innocence, that pureness that these kids show on the field.' Oda believes the memories his 12-year-old players make are more important than the games won or lost. 'It's about them experiencing this whole moment here. They're going to have memories saying that when I was 12, this is what we did,' Oda said. 'Gambling is here to stay, but I am thankful that Little League is very protective of what they have, and they should be. You know that pure joy and emotion whether you win or you lose, that's the greatest thing.' Solomon said youth sports is 'all about the delivery of the sport' from leagues and coaches. 'Sports, if not delivered properly, can be harmful to children and betting on sports would definitely fall into that category of it being harmful,' Solomon said. Pressure from parents and coaches, as well as early sports specialization, can also negatively impact youth sports. In 2018, the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act that made sports betting illegal across most of the U.S for over 25 years. Now, 39 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized sports betting but states don't allow wagers to be made where those competing are under 18. In keeping with those laws, no online betting sites such as FanDuel, Draft Kings or ESPN Bet offer lines on the LLWS and Nevada's manager TJ Fechser hopes that doesn't change. 'We're in a big crazy world now and if we ever see publicized sports books throughout the world standardizing it, we have to really look into ourselves. Is this appropriate?' Fechser said. 'I'm not the decider on this, but I don't want to see it being standardized.' ___ Amanda Vogt is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.
UPI
a few seconds ago
- UPI
More than half of U.S. thinks racism is widespread, according to Gallup
A protestor stands in the street in front of Akron City Justice Center in Akron, Ohio, in July 2022 after Akron police fatally shot Jayland Walker, 25, after a short chase amid public unrest with law enforcement. Washington-based Gallup polling results suggest 64% of Americans believe racism is widespread in the United States. File Photo by Aaron Josefczyk/UPI | License Photo Aug. 20 (UPI) -- New data released Wednesday by Gallup suggests more than half the country believes that racism against Black people is not only alive and well but widespread in the United States. Gallup's newly-released results of 64% nearly tied with its last reading in its 2021 periodic measurements as its highest recorded by the Washington-based firm since 2008, the year Barack Obama was elected to the White House as the nation's first Black president. It's suggesting that 83% of Black adults and 61% of White adults say that racism is widespread. The question was first posed by Gallup experts in 2008, in which results said at the time that only 56% of U.S. adults thought racism was a widespread issues. It saw a reported dip to 51% by the following year. By 2015, its 60% reading came at a time of several high-profile killings of Black civilians at the hands of law enforcement officers and has since remained in that range. According to Gallup, police interactions stood out as the "top" area of unfair treatment toward Black people, with a perceptions of bias in healthcare, shopping, restaurants and workplaces at or near record high returns. Gallup said that non-Hispanic Black adults continue to be "most likely" to say such racism is prevalent in the country, with 83% expressing that view. Results found that smaller majorities of Hispanic respondents at 64% and 61% of non-Hispanic White adults agreed. The findings come from Gallup's survey from June 2-26 and included an oversample to allow for better estimates. "Conversely, Americans' (29%) belief that racism against White people is widespread is the lowest of five readings since 2008," according to Gallup. It added that 68% in its poll say U.S. adults think civil rights "have improved" in their lifetime. "The overall sample was weighted so all racial/ethnic groups are represented in their proper proportions of the U.S. population," according to Gallup officials. But the survey noted how in six of its interactions that dealing with police was seen largely as racially "inequitable." Gallup's results suggests a trend of at least 57% of Americans who believe Black people are treated less fairly than White people in various situations, particularly during traffic incidents that in recent years have been known to turn deadly in multiple states.
Los Angeles Times
28 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
New Report on State of Technology in Value-Based Care Exposes Tech and Data Barriers
Glendale-based Reveleer, a leading value-based care technology platform, in partnership with Mathematica, a policy data and analytics company, has released the '2025 State of Technology in Value-Based Care Report.' The report comes during a pivotal moment in healthcare transformation. While payer and provider alignment around value-based care (VBC) has never been stronger, execution is falling behind. The report reveals that while there is widespread confidence in technology's potential to support value-based care, significant barriers such as fragmented data strategies, uneven AI adoption and insufficient staff training are hindering progress and scalability. The report findings defy a common industry narrative that payers and providers are misaligned on priorities. In fact, 100% of providers and 97% of payers surveyed agree their value-based care goals are strongly aligned. What's missing is synchronized execution. Despite shared vision, payers and providers are operating in parallel rather than in concert, pointing to an inefficiency that limits the impact of technology investments and makes scale more difficult. Meanwhile, momentum continues to build: 92% of payers and 81% of providers surveyed saw their VBC contracts grow in the past 12 months. And even more expect growth ahead, with 94% of payers and 83% of providers forecasting increases in the next 12 months. But if execution continues to lag behind ambition, progress may stall before it can transform care. 'To realize the full potential of value-based care, payers and providers must collaborate at scale,' said Jay Ackerman, CEO of Reveleer. 'The good news is payers and providers are finally rowing in the same direction. But if they don't row in sync, we won't move forward. This report points to a clear call to action. The alignment is there, and the tools are ready. Tighter collaboration and true transformation are within reach.' Data management is viewed as a strategic asset by virtually every organization surveyed. 97% of providers and 96% of payers agree that a strong data management approach gives them a competitive edge in the marketplace. Yet behind that confidence lies significant operational fragmentation. Only a third of surveyed providers (33%) and payers (31%) rate their data integration capabilities as 'excellent.' Yet only about half (46% of providers and 53% of payers) are very confident in the accuracy and completeness of the patient data they use in VBC initiatives. This gap between perception and precision signals a major vulnerability in scaling VBC effectively and safely. Every payer and provider surveyed reports using AI. And most agree it's delivering results: 96% of both payers and providers agree their approach to AI adoption and implementation has given them a competitive advantage, and more than 80% of each report seeing positive impacts, including: But enthusiasm hasn't translated into full commitment. Only 40% of payers and 38% of providers say they are fully committed to AI adoption. Just 21% of payers and 29% of providers report a significant increase in AI use in the past 12 months. Underlying this hesitation are concerns about AI hallucinations, algorithmic transparency and the ethics of AI-assisted decisions without human oversight. These concerns don't negate AI's value, but they do signal the need for more robust frameworks for responsible adoption. Despite confidence in AI's promise, organizations are underinvesting in the people who need to use it. While all organizations surveyed offer at least some AI training, only 30% of payers and 32% of provider organizations offer extensive training programs. This lack of preparation is a likely contributor to AI hesitancy and a barrier to scaling its use. As the pressure to improve outcomes and reduce costs intensifies, organizations that pair technology with workforce readiness will be better positioned to lead. 'Technology is a powerful enabler, but it's not a magic wand,' said Ngan MacDonald, director of data innovations at Mathematica. 'The path to scalable value-based care demands more than alignment. It demands real investment in data infrastructure, workforce readiness and AI governance. This report highlights where the friction lies and where leaders need to focus next.' Information sourced from Reveleer. To learn more, contact srubin@
