Legal news, some illegal. All of it interesting
1. Tornado Alley Tourism, a PI Attorney’s Dream
What happened to hitting the beach? The uptick in global warming-fueled natural disasters has sparked a whirlwind romance between tourists and tornados. We do not try to understand this. More than a dozen companies now run storm-chasing tours in Tornado Alley. Operators load up vans with several thrill seekers, driving as far south as Texas and as far north as Canada, chasing storms. Since Tornado Alley is unique to the U.S., a lot of the tornado tourists are international. And in a not-so-shocking twister, the National Weather Service doesn’t love this. But, they do spin it that tornado tours with radar equipment are safer than chasing them by yourself.
2. Embryo Activist Sues Over Climate Change Inaction
Oh baby, baby, the embryo plaintiff in a South Korea lawsuit is an actual toddler now. But when he was 20 weeks in utero his mother added his name to Asia’s first youth-led climate lawsuit against South Korea. Baby’s got back-ing. At 19 months, he’s the youngest of 62 plaintiffs seeking to force revisions to Seoul’s climate laws. The suit stems from a 2021 government commitment to cut carbon emissions 40% by 2050. It required a 5% reduction every year – which hasn’t happened. Similar child-led litigation succeeded in Germany, with the court ruling that climate targets were insufficient and unconstitutional. But a California version was iced, iced, baby.
Climate not diaper change lawsuit here…
3. Hostelity at Hotel Price Fixing Lawsuit
Several high-end hotels and a commercial real estate analytics giant are trying to get a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to keep room prices high, checked out – permanently. According to the lawsuit, Hilton, Hyatt and Marriot colluded with CoStar, sharing prices, supply and future plans. They allegedly used that information to innflate rates from New York to San Francisco. But CoStar urged the U.S. judge to give the lawsuite broom service, saying plaintiffs concierred with this case. Allowing it to move forward would upgrade it to a precedent that could upend numerous industries using benchmarking to gather market intelligence. Last month, a similar lawsuit was dismissed.
4. Hershey Suit Over Blank Reese’s Getting More Pieces?
The lawsuit against Hershey over blank Reese’s Peanut Butter candy despite packaging showing mounds of artistic design – is going king-sized. That’s if the proposed class action is certified. A group of unjolly ranchers from Florida accuse Hershey of deceiving consumers by depicting their Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins, Bats, Footballs, and White Ghosts as having faces or in the case of the football – stitching. What they got was blank faces and a football that looked eerily the same as the Reese’s Egg. Plaintiffs are inviting the whole choco-lot of consumers who bought these products in Florida within the past three years to join them in taking Hershey to task for those duds.
5. Have a Coke and a … Scratch From Bottle Cap
Consumers agree that Coca-Cola’s environmental effort with sustainable bottle caps – it’s the real thing. The attached caps, which comply with a new European Union directive, are meant to be recycled with the bottle and not littered. But it has fallen flat with some consumers who complain the cap hits and scratches them in the face when they swig. Plus, soft drink companies say the hard truth is that they will have to use more plastic to create the newly required attached caps, up to 200K additional tons. Coca-Cola says while some soda drinkers are not feeling the real magic of the attached caps, they’ve heard from plenty of others who like them.
