Burger King becomes latest fast food giant to face lawsuit over misleading portion sizes

WASHINGTON — Burger King will face a class action lawsuit accusing the fast-food chain of falsely advertising its Whoppers, a judge ruled last week. 

The chain is the latest fast-food company to be hit with a lawsuit for false or misleading advertising. Earlier this month, a New York man sued Taco Bell for misleading customers about its Crunchwraps and Mexican Pizzas. 

The lawsuit alleges the burger chain "materially overstates" Whoppers and sandwiches look bigger in their promotional material, but the actual menu items customers received were "smaller than advertised." The class-action lawsuit represents plaintiffs from Florida, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, California, Connecticut, Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Arizona. 

In the suit, plaintiffs compared a current Whopper ad to one from 2017.

"A side-by-side comparison of Burger King’s former Whopper advertisement to the current Whopper advertisement shows that the burger increased in size by approximately 35% and the amount of beef increased by more than 100%," the suit alleged. "Although the size of the Whopper and the beef patty increased materially in Burger King’s advertisements, the amount of beef or ingredients contained in the actual Whopper that customers receive did not increase.”

The lawsuit also calls for Burger King to replace its advertisement photos with ones reflecting the real size of the sandwiches. 

Burger King filed a bid to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that it wasn't required to make burger look "exactly like an advertising photo." U.S. District Judge Roy Altman in Miami rejected the chain's motion and said it must defend itself against the claims. 

In the motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Burger King argued that advertisements "have always been styled to make it look as appetizing as possible" and that "reasonable consumers viewing food advertising know it innately. "

In his decision, Altman also dismissed the lawsuit's claim that Burger King's "out-of-store" ads such as TV commercials and online ads were a "breach of contract." However, the federal judge said that the chain's "in-store menu ordering boards" act differently as they are meant to list descriptions and price information, therefore giving customers an "offer."

"So far as we can tell, these ordering boards are actually in the stores when the customers walk in. Their whole purpose is to present to the potential customer an offering of the available menu items," the filing said. 

Last year, McDonald's, Wendys and Burger King all faced lawsuits over the size of their cheeseburgers, BBC reported. z