General Mills scraps controversial new legal terms

0

NEW YORK (AP) — General Mills is scrapping a controversial plan to strip consumers of their right to sue
the food company.
The
company, which owns Cheerios, Progresso and Yoplait, had posted a
notice on its website notifying visitors of a change to its legal terms —
visitors using its websites or engaging with it online in a variety of
other ways meant they would have to give up their right to sue.
Instead, the new terms said, people would need to have disputes resolved through informal negotiation or
arbitration.
The
Minnesota-based company’s decision was widely denounced on social media
after The New York Times wrote a story Wednesday bearing the headline,
"When ‘Liking’ A Brand Online Voids the Right to Sue." The next day,
General Mills clarified the meaning of its new terms to say they did not
apply when people engaged with its brands on Facebook and Twitter.
"No
one is precluded from suing us merely by purchasing our products at the
store or liking one of our brand Facebook pages. That is just a
mischaracterization," the company said.
The terms would apply in
instances such as when people subscribed to one of its publications or
downloaded its coupons from its websites, General Mills said.
Despite
the clarification, the company apparently continued to feel pressure
regarding its new terms, and issued another statement late Saturday
saying that it decided to return to the previous legal terms.
"We
are announcing today that we have reverted back to our prior legal
terms, which contain no mention of arbitration," the email said.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.

No posts to display