Imagine you’re driving. You spot a delicious-looking advertisement and decide to roll into a drive through. Just as you unwrap your meal, you realize it… isn’t quite what you saw.
According to Frank Siragusa, that’s what has been happening to Taco Bell customers. He filed a lawsuit against the fast food chain Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
“This is a class action against Taco Bell for unfair and deceptive trade practices for falsely advertising the amount of beef and/or ingredients contained,” in several of the restaurants’ Mexican cuisine-inspired menu items. These include the Crunchwrap Supreme, Grande Crunchwrap, Vegan Crunchwrap, Mexican Pizza, and Veggie Mexican Pizza.
In particular, a Mexican Pizza Siragusa ordered allegedly had half the portion of beef and bean filling in it compared to advertisements, per the suit.
“If Plaintiff knew that the Mexican Pizza contained half of the amount of beef and bean filling as advertised, he would not have purchased the Mexican Pizza and/or he would not have paid the $5.49 price that he paid for the Mexican Pizza,” it said.
Court documents include advertisements depicting tortilla-filled items bursting with ground beef mix and other ingredients. Next to these are photos of items purchased at Taco Bell that do appear less voluptuous. Documents also cite complaints about Taco Bell’s meat portion sizes from the U.S. Sun, Mashed and other online comments and videos from consumers.
“Taco Bell’s actions are especially concerning now that inflation, food, and meat prices are very high and many consumers, especially lower income consumers, are struggling financially,” said the suit. “Taco Bell’s promise to consumers of a large portion of food with their purchase are also causing consumers to come to, or order from, Taco Bell’s restaurants and make purchases that they would not have otherwise made.”
Indeed, inflation has been high in the U.S. for more than a year, and prices for goods such as eggs have gone up and down. In the midst of this high inflation, USA Today reported that other fast food chains were taken to court over their portion sizes last year, including McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s. Those cases have not been resolved, said the outlet.
Siragusa’s suit alleges that Taco Bell’s ads aren’t just misleading to consumers, but that they are unfair to competing businesses “that more fairly advertise the size of their menu items,” costing those competitors millions of dollars. He calls for Taco Bell to discontinue its “unfair and materially misleading advertising,” and requests monetary damages fully compensating people who purchased items mentioned in the suit.
According to USA Today, Taco Bell did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the allegations.
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