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.

    • SSX@lemmy.worldEnglish
      556·
      10 months ago

      This is ultimately why I hate capitalism.

      These corporations spend tons more money fighting against stuff than they do paying it out. The woman wanted her hospital bills paid, that was it. Instead, they go to town spending so much money with the intent to misinform and spread propaganda than just paying it.

      Many of these large employers do the same with unemployment cases and on-site work injuries. Spending more time and money doing fuck all than just paying it out like the greedy pigs they are.

    • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.worldEnglish
      18·
      10 months ago

      My mom broke her tooth on a small stone in some cereal while all that was swirling around the collective consciousness. She wouldn’t sue because she “didn’t want to be like the McDonald’s lady.” The dentist wasn’t even suggesting to sue for some kind of “pain and suffering” money, just literally the $1500 it cost to fix the tooth.

    • Steeve@lemmy.caEnglish
      3·
      10 months ago

      There’s no evidence to suggest that they paid to spread disinformation, that would be massively illegal and open them up to way more lawsuits. Ragebait has just always been popular.