Subway was hit with a class-action lawsuit on Monday that claims the chain\u2019s advertisements \u201cmaterially overstate\u201d the amount of meat and cheese in its sandwiches.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit, on behalf of the Queens resident Anna Tollison, asks justices in the US district court for the eastern district of New York<\/a> to certify the claim as a class action.<\/p>\n Tollison claims she purchased a steak and cheese sandwich from a Subway location in New York in August for $7.61 and then realized that the chain\u2019s ads showed a sandwich containing at least 200% more meat than she and other consumers would ultimately receive.<\/p>\n The lawsuit claims the photographs of sandwiches used in Subway\u2019s marketing falsely advertise how much meat the steak and cheese sandwich contains.<\/p>\n Subway, with 37,000 locations in the US, was purchased by the Atlanta-based private equity firm Roark Capital in April.<\/p>\n The lawsuit claims Subway, best known for its foot-long sandwiches, engages in similar tactics for \u201cmany other sandwiches\u201d, including its cheesy garlic steak.<\/p>\n The advertisements, the lawsuit states, \u201care unfair and financially damaging to consumers as they are receiving a product that is materially lower in value than what is being represented\u201d.<\/p>\n It adds that this is deeply concerning because of inflation and high food prices, and lower-income Subway customers are struggling financially.<\/p>\n But similar lawsuits brought by the same law firm against McDonald\u2019s, Wendy\u2019s and Taco Bell were dismissed<\/a> just last year. A similar lawsuit against Burger King is pending in federal court in Miami.<\/p>\n Subway was also hit with a class-action lawsuit claiming that its foot-long sandwiches were less than a foot long. In 2017, a judge threw the case out<\/a> saying it sought \u201conly worthless benefits for the class and yields only fees for class counsel is no better than a racket and should be dismissed out of hand\u201d.<\/p>\n A year earlier, a Wisconsin federal judge approved a settlement requiring Subway to adopt quality control measures that, he said, were consistent with \u201cthe realities of baking bread\u201d so that a 6 or 12in sandwich came out at that length.<\/p>\n