US teenagers given nod to sue McDonalds
The possibility of legislation halting obesity lawsuits has resurfaced again in the US where an Appeals Court has ruled that McDonald\'s must face a lawsuit by New York teenagers seeking billions of dollars for allegedly hiding the health risks of Chicken McNuggets.
The Financial Times reports the plaintiffs, four teenage girls from the Bronx, are seeking to hold the world\'s biggest hamburger chain responsible for their obesity and health problems. They say McDonald\'s deceived customers about its products and failed to display nutritional information prominently enough. Their claim, originally filed in 2002, was the first obesity-related lawsuit against a food company to reach a courtroom until, a year later, US district judge Robert Sweet backed McDonald\'s motion to dismiss it. He said the plaintiffs failed to show McDonald\'s products involved any danger not within the common knowledge of consumers. But a New York Appeals Court has overruled the judges decision, saying the teenagers and their lawyers should be allowed to collect evidence in support of their case. Full report in the Financial Times