Posted on 05/31/2003 11:53:10 AM PDT by Jimmyclyde
McDonald's sues food critic
By Christian Plumb MILAN (Reuters) - McDonald's has sued one of Italy's top food critics for raking its restaurants over the coals, but the critic says he has no intention of going back on saying its burgers taste of rubber and its fries of cardboard.
With the court case ongoing, McDonald's of Italy said on Friday the critic's comments were "clearly defamatory and offensive to McDonald's and to the more than 600,000 Italians who each day freely choose to eat in a McDonald's restaurant".
Critic Edoardo Raspelli, one of the top food personalities in a country that is home to a popular "slow food" movement, said he had received hundreds of emails supporting him against the fast-food giant.
"To me this looks like the usual, very American effort to destroy criticism and destroy people," Raspelli said. "I didn't defame anybody, not even their French fries."
McDonald's, which has 300 restaurants in Italy, said in a statement it hoped the judge would find in its favour and "award fair damages", without specifying a figure.
But a spokesman for McDonald's Europe said on Friday the company was hoping for a settlement out of court.
"We trust this matter can be resolved out of court and in an amicable way," spokesman Mike Love told Reuters in Chicago.
Raspelli said the chain was seeking 21 million euros (15 million pounds), the equivalent of what it spent on advertising in Italy in 2002.
At issue are Raspelli's comments in an interview with an Italian newspaper group in December, part of broader coverage of what was ailing the world's largest restaurant company, which last year posted its first-ever yearly loss.
Raspelli, who writes a regular column for newspaper La Stampa, oversees one of the country's top restaurant guides and appears weekly on television, said he had no intention of apologising.
"Nothing I said was offensive and so there's no need to apologise," he said. "Right now, McDonald's should be thinking of ways to get back the public's sympathy, not have it out with me."
Raspelli's lawyer Catherina Malavenda said that in a hearing on Tuesday the judge in the case had asked the fast-food chain and the food critic to look for ways to bury the hatchet.
Sounds about right...
This guys starts a fight then gets upset when the other side doesn't just stand their and take it?
I had every intention of walking 200 yards down the street to Taco Bell for a quicky, but the heat got me so I stopped at the Mac-place which was a hundred yards closer...big mistake; I'd forgotten how garbagey their stuff is.
Welcome to Free Republic, by the way.
Why you ask???
With a spokesman in a clown suit with a smile, pandering to the children, and a fortune in PR you can sell crap to the public and cause them to say Lets Go to ..... without a thought of quality or its consequences on the general taste of the masses. (sheeple)
Gee sounds like the DEMS
Ohh, I've lurked here for many a moon. Agree with about 65% of the posters.
I'm prolly a bit too libertarian for many resident tastes...
What is McDonald's doing by suing folks who express an opinion?
Why don't they just do a blindfolded taste test - julienned corrugated boxes, and Micky 'Fries'....
"See! Folks can distinguish between our 'food' and packaging material!"
Having lurked, then you know that "Libertarian Threads" get heavy hits....hot and heavy hits.
Ohh, I've lurked here for many a moon. Agree with about 65% of the posters.
I'm prolly a bit too libertarian for many resident tastes...
65% is a landslide in an election, LOL
There are WAY TOO MANY different opinions at FR for most anyone to get much higher than that.
When I visited the DU(strictly opposition research) there were NO opinions I could agree with, LOL.
I simply feel that the government should only stick its nose where our Constitution allows it. And frankly, I cannot understand why we have 'full time legislators' at both the state and federal level... Did the founding fathers envision a laundry list of laws that ever grows?
You're right on there! Where do those folks come from</i???
LOL. Don't worry, you'll soon turn into a curmudgeonly paranoid conservative like the rest of us - it just takes time to absorb all this truth at once! :)
Oh, nonsense. It's Italian law that permits big business to attack their critics through the courts. In America, this suit would never have been filed, and would have been immediately dismissed (and probably declared frivolous) if it had been.
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