TIL In the Hot Coffee lawsuit against McDonalds,punitive damages were given due to McDonalds intentionally overheating coffee to save money on refills - eviltoast

During the trial it was revealed that McDonald’s knew that heating their coffee to this temperature would be dangerous, but they did it anyways because it would save them money. When you serve coffee that is too hot to drink, it will take much longer for a person to drink their coffee, which means that McDonald’s will not have to give out as many free refills of coffee. This policy by the fast food chain is the reason the jury awarded $2.7 million dollars in punitive damages in the McDonald’s hot coffee case. Punitive damages are meant to punish the defendant for their inappropriate business practice.

  • jarfil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    There is an additional step:

    • Serve it in a disposable container that doesn’t soak up any of the heat.

    Pouring hot coffee into a thick cold porcelain cup, tends to quickly cool it down to drinkable levels. A flimsy paper cup… not so much.

    • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      And now imagine giving that to a person in a moving vehicle without a lid.

      There’s so much fucked up here it’s almost unbelievable. This is legitimately a bigger safety risk, after all is said and done, than many risks in an industrial chemical plant.