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Taco Bell is embroiled in a lawsuit accusing it of misleading advertising that violates two New York General Business Law acts. The plaintiff alleges that the fast-food giant overstated the ingredients in its Crunchwrap and Mexican Pizza variants, causing financial damage to consumers and creating unfair competition with other fast-food brands.
In the class-action lawsuit that lawyers filed on behalf of the plaintiff on Monday, July 31, they said the Taco Bell ads were false and misleading. This is because the ingredients in the mentioned menu are much less than advertised. Likewise, the suit stated that the restaurants' ads show more than double the ingredients served in the stores.
Fox Business reported that the food items included in the lawsuit are Taco Bell's Crunchwrap Supreme, Grande Crunchwrap, Vegan Crunchwrap, Mexican Pizza, and Veggie Mexican Pizza. In the filing to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the suit asks the court to classify the case under class action and direct the restaurant to pay the plaintiff.
They also want the court to order Taco Bell to either stop the sale of the five food items or fix the alleged deceptive behavior. The plaintiff labeled the company's ads as "unfair and financially damaging to consumers as they are receiving a product that is materially lower in value than what is being promised."
They also argue that the Taco Bell advertisements create unfair competition to other fast-food brands serving menu items in the true size they are being advertised. It was noted that the restaurant's Crunchwrap Supreme has been on the menu for 17 years already, while the Mexican Pizza just returned to the stores in September 2022 after a 2-year hiatus.
At any rate, the lawsuit started after a customer named Frank Siragusa paid $5.49 for Taco Bell's Mexican Pizza when it made its comeback last year. He was disappointed with the serving because the beef and bean filling was only half of what was shown on the posters. Because of this experience, he decided to sue the company.
As per Reuters, Siragusa said in the filing that Taco Bell has been deceiving its customers by falsely promoting some of its food. In his complaint, he included a side by side photos of food filled to the brim with beef, cheese, and vegetables and the "actual" product with far fewer fillings. The smaller food items shown were said to have been posted online by other customers.
Finally, in a statement sent to the publication, Siragusa's lawyer, Anthony Russo, commented, "Taco Bell does not adequately disclose the weight of the beef or filling. Plaintiff did not make any purchases of the product based on any weight disclosure but solely based on the picture of the product, as we believe most consumers do."
Photo by: Mario A. P./Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
