Category Archives Issue 646

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has rejected class certification and a settlement agreement in a lawsuit alleging Subway sells "Footlong" sandwiches that are sometimes shorter than 12 inches. In re: Subway Footlong Sandwich Mktg. & Sales Practices Litig., No. 16-1652 (7th Cir., entered August 25, 2017). “In their haste to file suit," the court noted, "the lawyers neglected to consider whether the claims had any merit. They did not.” Additional details about this case appear in Issues 468 and 487 of this Update. The court found that the parties established in early discovery that the raw dough sticks the chain uses for baked bread portions were uniform in weight and that variations in final length were “wholly attributable to the natural variability in the baking process.” In addition, meat and cheese toppings are standardized, “so the length of the bread has no effect on the quantity of food each…