Month: July 2009

Week Adjourned: 7.24.09

baconAnother busy week at the bar!

Top Class Actions

The fast food industry came under fire this week in a big way with two class actions filed, one against Denny’s alleging the restaurant chain conceals the amount of sodium in its menu items from its customers, and another against McDonald’s in Illinois over alleged hepatitis A virus (HAV) contamination.

Grand Salty Slam? The crux of the Denny’s class action is salt—hundreds, if not thousands of milligrams over the daily recommended intake is being consumed by unsuspecting customers on a daily basis. This is, apparently, putting people who dine at Denny’s on say Moons Over My Hammy or the Super Bird turkey sandwich at greater risk for high blood pressure and heart disease than those who don’t frequent the restaurant. So a consumer watchdog group has filed a class action to force Denny’s to disclose the salt content of their menu items. So much for ignorance is bliss. Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 7.24.09”

Week Adjourned: 7.17.09

glasscrackedSo much for the lazy days of summer—it’s been a busy week!

Top Class Actions

Kindle cracking up? Unfortunately that’s not in a “ha-ha” kind of way. An unhappy customer in Seattle filed a federal class action lawsuit against online bookseller Amazon, this week, over his cracking Kindle.

A Kindle, for those of us technophobes, is an electronic book reader, and has proved tremendously popular for a variety of reasons. Mathew Giese is a convert, he bought a Kindle 2 in February, and a protective cover for it. After 3 months of use his Kindle started to crack in the areas where the cover was attached. The cracks grew worse until one day the screen froze and the Kindle seemingly stopped working.

When Geise contacted Amazon to make warranty claim, he was told by a company representative that Amazon would cover the cost of the frozen screen, but not the cracks, as the warranty apparently doesn’t include damage made by the protective cover. To make a long story short, Mr. Giese was told that the repairs would cost $200.  Yes, you read that correctly. And did I mention that you can get a new Kindle 2 for $299? Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 7.17.09”

Week Adjourned: 7.10.09

401163 cover.inddTop Class Actions

Manulife meets its Waterloo? Ok, lousy play on words—and not everyone knows Manulife is based out of Waterloo, ON (city motto: stability). But, indeed, a class action lawsuit was filed this week on behalf investors who purchased the securities of Manulife Financial Corporation between March 28, 2008 and June 22, 2009. Manulife is considered a “safe bet” as an investment tool, and is among the top insurance companies in the world, largely due to its risk management strategies. But this time, they may not have followed their own investment guidelines.

The complaint alleges that contrary to the Company’s own risk management strategy, Manulife applied no material hedging strategy to manage risk particularly during an economic downturn (hmm, could the book at right have come in handy? just asking). The complaint further alleges that notwithstanding its risk management strategy Manulife built up a massive stock portfolio, which Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 7.10.09”

Week Adjourned: 7.3.09

clear-air-security-copy1Top Class Actions

Whiz-through security fizzes out? As if air travel wasn’t fraught with enough obstacles, delays, and frustrations frequent flyers last Monday found themselves SOL at Clear Airport Security Kiosks across the country. The problem? They’d closed their doors, gone out of business, shut down. See ya bye.

Clear operated the Registered Traveler program in 20 airports, serving a reported 260,000 customers. The company pre-screened frequent fliers taking fingerprints, iris scans and credit information, which it then gave to the US Transportation Security Administration, in order to fast track people through the security line-ups.

So, Verified Identity Pass, the parent company of airport security provider Clear, was hit with a class action lawsuit over reimbursement of its US$199 annual fee, by one very disgruntled customer. Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 7.3.09”