FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday 2/11/05 -- ATTN: Health, Business, Legal, 
Food, and Consumer Editors
Sixth Fat Law Suit Successful - More on the Way
McDonald's Alone Pays Over $20 Million to Settle

The sixth fat law suit has just been successful, with McDonald's paying 
$8.5 million to settle it in addition to its agreement to pay $12.5 
million to settle an earlier fat law suit.  A third fat law suit, 
accusing the company of contributing to the obesity of minors, was 
recently reinstated by a unanimous U.S. Court of Appeals.

"This brings to six the number of successful fat law suits which have so 
far been brought, and more are on the way.  McDonald's and others 
initially labeled them frivolous, but the fast food giant obviously 
thinks they are serious enough to pay out over $20 million in past 
several years to avoid damaging jury verdicts," says public interest law 
professor John Banzhaf of George Washington University Law School.

The first successful fat law suit against McDonald's was put together by 
Prof. Banzhaf's law students, and charged McDonald's with failing to 
disclose that its french fries contained beef fat. McDonald's settled it 
by paying $12.5 million, and making the required disclosure.  The fat 
law suit settled today charged McDonald's with failing to inform 
consumers of delays in a plan to reduce fat in the cooking oil used for 
its popular french fries and other foods.  It will now pay to make those 
disclosures, and to educate the public about the deadly dangers of trans 
fat in foods.

Two earlier fat law suits against food companies for failing to properly 
disclose the fat and calorie content of their products were settled for 
a combined total of about $8 million.  Another suit forced Kraft Foods 
to take the trans fat out of its Oreo cookies, thereby substantially 
reducing the risk and the calories.  Another law suit was the catalyst 
which forced New York City to ban sugary soft drinks and most fattening 
foods from its schools.

"Even just the threat of a law suit forced the Seattle School Board to 
back down on plans to renew a 'Coke For Kickbacks' contract under which 
students would have been able to buy sugary soft drinks during the 
school day with the school getting a share of the profits, and four 
federal judges have all now held that the legal theories under which 
children seek to hold McDonald's liable for its fair share of causing 
them to become obese are meritorious," says Banzhaf.

"Be assured that more fat suits are on the way, and that this most 
recent victory will encourage other lawyers concerned about obesity to 
consider joining this growing movement.  It took more than thirty years 
after the Surgeon General's report on smoking for plaintiffs to win any 
money, yet six fat law suits have now been successful within only a few 
years of the Surgeon General's December 2001 report on obesity."

Moreover, food companies have already made numerous changes in response 
to these law suits and the threat of more law suits, and the trend is 
likely to continue, claims Banzhaf.  Looking just at McDonald's, it has:
* added healthier entrees and healthier desserts, including fresh fruit
* provided more nutritional information about fat and calories on its 
web site, in brochures, on wall charts, and on the back of tray mats
* eliminated supersizing
* begun warning customers not to eat at its restaurants more than once a 
week

Banzhaf says that a coordinated number of law suits are likely to be 
filed shortly in several different states.  All are aimed at protecting 
children, as was the law suit against McDonald's recently reinstated by 
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2d Circuit.

For more information on this general topic, 
see http://banzhaf.net/obesitylinks.html

PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III