Occasionally, weird news reaches our ears: customers sue a restaurant for a variety of reasons. This is often the case in the United States or elsewhere in the world, but Quebec and Canada do not always stand apart. Here are a few recently brought to light.
A tartare with serious consequences
The story takes place in a restaurant in downtown Sherbrooke in 2016. A customer sits down, tells the waiter of a salmon allergy and orders a beef tartare. A few moments later, a dish arrives in front of the customer, who does not pay attention and takes a first bite of the tartare.
This caused the client to go into anaphylactic shock. He was hospitalized for a week to treat his severe allergic reaction. He didn't have an EpiPen on him.
After a complaint and an investigation by the police, the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions had decided not to lay charges against the server then on duty that evening.
The client, however, decided to criminalize the owners and the server responsible for $ 415,000.
Eventually, a settlement was negotiated out of court.
Two pizzerias, two almost identical phone numbers
In recent weeks, the Canadian chain Pizza Pizza has sent a formal notice to Pizza Salvatoré in Drummondville ordering it to change its phone number.
According to the action, the numbers used by Pizza Pizza always end with "1111" and that of Pizza Salvatoré, in operation since March 2020 in Drummondville, also ends with "1111". This would mislead consumers and interfere with restaurant operations.
However, Pizza Pizza does not currently operate any franchises in this city of Center-du-Quebec.
All the same, like a good player, the owners of Pizza Salvatoré took the request seriously and changed the phone number. If you are in the area and would like to place an order, call 819 390-2222!
No mask, no service: a complaint
Now, with the pandemic still raging and health directives requiring everyone to wear a mask inside every public space, new kinds of lawsuits are sometimes brought.
This is the case against an Ontario restaurant which received a complaint of discrimination because the manager refused to serve a customer who was not on his mask when he came to pick up an order from the take-out window. .
The client is therefore claiming the payment of $ 20,000, otherwise he will have to take them to court.
A vegetarian against McDonald's
A customer, who calls herself a vegetarian but has had no other choice, she says, to eat a Big Mac because of the McDonald's ads, is appealing to the court.
She therefore decided to sue the fast food chain on the pretext that the overly effective advertising forced her to disobey the dietary rules she had set for herself. The Russian Orthodox Christian woman couldn't resist the temptation to walk into the restaurant and order a burger after seeing the poster.
What does she ask in return? Only $ 17 for “moral damage”. She's asking her country's court to investigate whether restaurant giants are advertising animal products at a time when Christians like her are being called to abstain. According to her, this is a breach of consumer protection law.
The date of the preliminary hearing is still unknown.
Starbucks too hot coffee
Among our neighbors to the south, the Starbucks chain often pays the price of justice. In recent months, a few customers have taken legal action over serious burns from their coffee that is too hot.
A Florida woman was awarded $ 100,000 because the lid of her cafe came off and she was severely burned.
In Texas, another woman has just filed a lawsuit against Starbucks because she also burned herself after seeing her lid fall over and the coffee burn her legs in the first and second degree. In this case, the sum of $ 75,000 is claimed in order to repair the negligence.
