In Russia, consumer rights' advocates filed a lawsuit against McDonald's fast food chain. At issue is false and misleading claims regarding some of their “foods.”
The lawsuit was filed at Moscow's Tverskoy Court. The plaintiffs intend to force the company to indicate the complete list of ingredients on packaging, rather than the content of protein, fat and carbohydrates. McDonalds disagrees with that and said it should be allowed to mislead customers like it is doing now in other places around the world, including the United States.
Representatives of the Consumer Rights Protection Society claim that “concealing the content” of products McDonald’s sells violates the status of the retail outlet of finished products, not to mention the fact that it misleads consumers.
“You might be able to get away with this type of fraud in America, but not Russia” said Yogi Protovokov of Moscow.
According to experts in nutrition and health, the range of “milkshakes”, which the chain sells, can not be referred to as "milk" under the Russian law, Adindex.ru reports.
Experts discovered “the fat of vegetable origin” in McDonald's "milkshakes” is not dairy.
This drink, according to experts at the Institute of Laboratory of Nutrition, can be called "milk-containing" but not "milk".
The advocates of consumers rights are not demanding any fines from McDonald's, just a little honesty. They only say the company should “disclose information” and redesign the product packaging - so as not to purposely mislead consumers in Russia. “Misleading consumers may be allowable in the US, but not in Russia. We have a responsibility to protect people in our country”, said Marko Pertovich of Moscow a nutritional expert.
This measure could entail millions of dollars in costs for McDonald's should the court upholds it. It might also allow consumers to know exactly what they are eating. McDonalds objects to that, insisting the people do not really need to know what they eat. They maintain the right to call fat – “milk”.
“This is totally ridiculous”, says Anne Margret of Charlotte, N.C. who maintains McDonald’s food is unhealthy. “We are watching this situation in Russia because Russia maintains a higher food safety standard than the United States in terms of fast food marketing”, she said
The Society for the Protection of Consumers' Rights reminded that in July 2012, the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District issued a landmark ruling on the suit of McDonald's against the Moscow territorial division of the Federal Tax Service.
The Russian court ruled that McDonald's does not provide restaurant services.
Instead, the court said, the company sells food like products as a store. Therefore, the activities of the corporation should be taxed with 10 instead of 18 percent of VAT (Value added tax).
However, according to the Russian legislation, a store that sells food products (in this case the store also acts as the manufacturer of the food), unlike restaurants, is obliged to “provide all required and accurate information, including the information about the ingredients, food supplements, biologically active supplements, the information about the presence of the GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms), food value, purpose, conditions of use and storage of food, weight (volume), date and place of manufacture and packaging of food.”
The information about contraindications and indications for use at certain diseases shall also be provided on the product packaging.
McDonalds corporation spokesperson (speaking off the record) said “We are not a store or manufacturer. We should be allowed to label our food items how we want to. Nor do we feel we should be required to tell the truth about what we put into our food. We call our milkshakes – “milk” not vegi-shakes because if we did no one would buy it. They main thing is that our scientist have created food like substances which taste like milk...”
“That makes no sense whatsoever”, says Mark Richards of Charlotte, N.C. “Fat is not milk”, he said.
“Let’s face it McDonalds sells crappy food to people. It has little to no nutritional value to it” says Dan Caldwell of Charlotte. Morgan Spurlock did a documentary revealing how McDonalds can harm your health if you eat it”. In the documentary Morgan threw up after eating McDonalds. See the documentary “Supersize me” video - which exposes McDonalds and how its food harms people: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHKCb0_2oD0&feature=related
Doctors concluded that if Morgan continued eating McDonalds he would risk his health.
Robert Tilford
Charlotte, N.C.
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