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Very Particular Passenger Sues Airline for Serving Sparkling Wine Instead of Champagne
New York Magazine ^ | 10/20

Posted on 10/24/2017 9:02:53 PM PDT by nickcarraway

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It’s an important distinction, actually. Photo: Elliot Elliot/Getty Images/Johner RF A man in Quebec has filed a class-action lawsuit claiming a Canadian airline inflicted actionable damages by serving him a free glass of sparkling wine that wasn’t Champagne. A skimpy pour isn’t what outraged Daniel Macduff on his Sunwing flight to Cuba for a holiday getaway — it was the fact that he thought he’d been promised Champagne, but he instead spied a bottle that wasn’t marked with the style’s protected appellation.

The airline, you see, offers “Champagne service” and “Champagne vacations.” Naturally, you might think that means Champagne — a protected term that applies only to wine from the region, not a catch-all term for bubbly wine. Macduff’s lawyer tells the National Post that this suit isn’t about the “subtle differences between effervescent wines,” but rather “truthful advertising in a highly competitive market.” The budget airline is collecting a windfall by foisting cheaper wine onto excited passengers. “You’re trying to lure consumers by marketing something, and you’re not giving them that something,” he says. “It’s a dishonest practice.”

The airline says in a statement that these are merely words describing the “experience-enhancing features” passengers can expect on flights, not references to the exact drinks being served. Alas, the Post points out that certain Sunwing ads literally said complimentary “glass of Champagne.”

The airline has since scrubbed most of those ads from its marketing materials, and the website’s new preferred verbiage is a “welcome glass of sparkling wine.” Meanwhile, Macduff’s lawyer claims that he’s found about 1,600 more people who say that, as a matter of fact, they also feel cheated by Sunwing’s deceptive wine wording.


TOPICS: Food; Travel
KEYWORDS: airlines; champagne; sparklingwine

1 posted on 10/24/2017 9:02:53 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

“A man in Quebec has filed a class-action lawsuit claiming a Canadian airline inflicted actionable damages by serving him a free glass of sparkling wine that wasn’t Champagne.”

You know a society has become soft when there are lawsuits like this.


2 posted on 10/24/2017 9:04:58 PM PDT by plain talk
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To: nickcarraway
From Zippy the Pinhead:

Please don't be MAD at me.. Last Tuesday I filled your WATERBED with a ... DOMESTIC Bordeaux!!


3 posted on 10/24/2017 9:07:20 PM PDT by snarkpup (The swamp is draining; and the alligators are allegating.)
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To: nickcarraway

Since no one paid for the Champagne there can be no actual damages. It was a gift.


4 posted on 10/24/2017 9:07:32 PM PDT by LukeL
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To: nickcarraway
skimpy pour isn’t what outraged Daniel Macduff on his Sunwing flight to Cuba for a holiday getaway

This D-bag is going to Cuba for holiday, where he will be figuratively raped by communists while paying outrageous sums for crappy hotels, blackouts and bad food - and he's upset by a glass of sparkling wine?

He's mentally ill.

5 posted on 10/24/2017 9:10:05 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: nickcarraway

Pins & Needles
Needles & Pins!


6 posted on 10/24/2017 9:14:06 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: nickcarraway

Anybody going to Cuba who isn’t drinking Papa Dobles is a poof. Ignore them.


7 posted on 10/24/2017 9:38:25 PM PDT by ameribbean expat (Veritas Vincit)
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To: nickcarraway

Going to cuba? I guess he likes to look at slaves while drinking champagne.


8 posted on 10/24/2017 9:39:20 PM PDT by lowbridge
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To: LukeL

If the advertisement said ‘Champagne’, then it’s a misleading statement. To also be correct...the only real difference between Champagne and Sparkling Wine...is that Champagne has to be manufactured in a particular region of France. If you don’t make it there....it can only be Sparkling Wine. Otherwise, it’s the same stuff.

If you imported Champagne into the US or Canada....it wouldn’t be a cheap deal.


9 posted on 10/24/2017 9:52:45 PM PDT by pepsionice
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To: nickcarraway

the very particular customer should hope that he wasn’t served California Champagne, because California Champagne, is, indeed, legally a Champagne

“...in 2005, the U.S. and the EU reached an agreement. In exchange for easing trade restrictions on wine, the American government agreed that California Champagne, Chablis, Sherry and a half-dozen other ‘semi-generic’ names would no longer appear on domestic wine labels – that is unless a producer was already using one of those names.
If a producer had used – or abused from the French point of view – one of those names prior to March 10th, 2006, they could continue to use the name on their label indefinitely.”

https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/loophole-california-champagne-legal/


10 posted on 10/24/2017 11:14:33 PM PDT by blueplum ( "...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017)
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To: nickcarraway; Pelham; Mr. Mojo

French Canadian no doubt

They are so prissy

I like their women though

And they liked me

Strip joints in Montreal ain’t like here

Lol

Nostalgia from the 80s in before the hellfire scolds


11 posted on 10/24/2017 11:22:38 PM PDT by wardaddy (Virtue signalers should be shot on sight...conservative ones racked and hanged then fed to dogs)
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To: lee martell

“Needles & Pins”

“Because of all my pride
The tears I gotta hide”


12 posted on 10/24/2017 11:23:36 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra (Don't touch that thing Don't let anybody touch that thing!I'm a Doctor and I won't touch that thing!)
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To: nickcarraway
I like Asti Spumante better than champagne. And it's cheaper too. Try a glass of Spumanti with biscotti or Italian almond cookies.

snooth.com/wines

13 posted on 10/25/2017 12:29:04 AM PDT by Daaave (''the flesh eating jinn of Komari')
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To: nickcarraway

Another Commie-wannabe champagne drinker and fool from Canada.


14 posted on 10/25/2017 12:52:48 AM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: nickcarraway

This is a shockingly stupid waste of the court’s time. If he didn’t like the flight, he shouldn’t use them again, but the monetary value of the difference between what they served and the cheapest real champagne is negligible.


15 posted on 10/25/2017 2:49:45 AM PDT by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
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To: nickcarraway

WTF ever, idiot

It’s grape juice infused with C02...


16 posted on 10/25/2017 2:50:14 AM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: Vendome

OMG! The Hindenburg, now this! Oh the humanity!


17 posted on 10/25/2017 5:34:25 AM PDT by Spok
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To: nickcarraway
Who's this guy's attorney, Lionel Hutz?

"Mr. Simpson, this is the most blatant case of fraudulent advertising since my case against The Never-Ending Story!"

18 posted on 10/25/2017 5:42:50 AM PDT by Oratam
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To: plain talk
You know a society has become soft when there are lawsuits like this.

You say "soft," I say "predatory" and "too many lawyers."

19 posted on 10/25/2017 10:26:06 AM PDT by publius911 (Seriously??)
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