Beefin’ With Burger King: Diners Sue, Claiming Burgers Don’t Match the Ad Photos

Four customers have filed a lawsuit against Burger King over claims that the fast-food chain has been falsely advertising the size of its burgers to consumers. The plaintiffs are seeking to have their complaint become a class-action suit so that it can represent all customers who dined at the restaurant during the time it falsely advertised its product.

Walter Coleman, Marco DiLeonardo, Matthew Fox, and Madelyn Salzman filed the suit on March 28 in a Florida federal court. The diners are bringing their complaint under state consumer laws along with accusations of breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and negligent misrepresentation.

In their complaint, the plaintiffs present several pieces of evidence to support their claims that the fast-food giant knowingly advertised its classic Whopper Burger using images that made the burger appear much larger than it actually was. “Burger King advertises its burgers as large burgers compared to competitors, and containing oversized meat patties and ingredients that overflow the bun to make it appear that the burgers are approximately 35% larger in size, and contain more than double the meat than the actual burger,” the complaint reads.

To prove their allegations, the complaint includes images of the Whopper used by the company's online and print advertisements. Alongside those images are pictures that reveal the actual size of the burgers. The two images are noticeably different from the amateur, plaintiff-provided photos, which show the patties and vegetables being significantly smaller than the photos used for advertisement.

The complaint explains Burger King has been falsely advertising their burgers by showing consumers one product but then delivering a much smaller version of that product. The lawsuit insinuates that the fast-food giant knowingly marketed a much larger product by stating that the company more fairly advertised the Whopper in previous advertisements before it began advertising the overstated burger. To support this, the lawsuit displays a third photo of previous advertisements which offers a more understated burger. The complaint contends, “Although the size of the Whopper increased materially in Burger King’s advertisements, the recipe of the amount of meat or ingredients contained in Burger King’s Whopper has never changed.”

The complaint goes on to include evidence of the overstated burger through insight provided by expert fast food critic, John Jurasek. The suit details that as of late, Jurasek has also criticized the overstated advertisement of the chain’s Whopper. The complaint quotes him several times from his YouTube channel in which he explains that the pictures make the burger seem bigger than it actually is.

The lawsuit also uses testimonials from social media by other disappointed diners. Online posts show diners complaining after unwrapping their burger only to find a food item that looks much smaller than it did in the advertisements.

Finally, the lawsuits reference a similar scandal 12 years ago in which Burger King was ordered by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the U.K. to stop overstating their burgers. Following an inspection of three burgers, the ASA noted that the burgers “did not fill the hands to the same extent” as the burgers that were held by the models in the advertisements.

In their suit, the four diners are seeing money damages for deceiving consumers. They are also seeking an injunction so that Burger King stops the deceptive practiceconsumer protection lawConsumer protection law is the body of federal and state laws designed to protect people from unfair, deceptive, fraudulent, or abusive practices in the marketplace. These laws regulate areas such as advertising, sales, lending, debt collection, credit reporting, warranties, financial services, and consumer products.Read more →.