A North Texas man has filed a class action lawsuit against Cinemark, claiming the movie theater chain is lying to customers about the size of its drinks.

Shane Waldrop claims that Cinemark’s 24 ounce cups can only hold 22 ounces of liquid, according to the lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

On Feb. 14, Waldrop went to the Cinemark in Grapevine and purchased the 20 ounce and 24 ounce draft beer.

He noticed the 24 ounce cup did not appear to be big enough to hold 4 more ounces of liquid.

Waldrop took the empty container home and measured how much it could hold, discovering it only held 22 ounces.

Waldrop and his legal team says the movie theater chain is taking part in “deceptive” and “otherwise improper” business practices that violate state and federal laws about misbranding.

“This is especially misleading because the 24 oz drink should provide a deal for consumers over the 20 oz drink’s price: $0.37 per ounce vs. $0.39 per ounce. But due to the actual volume of 22 oz available in the ‘24 oz’ drink, the price is $0.40 per ounce making the larger drink more expensive per ounce, which is not a deal at all,” reads the lawsuit.

  • @NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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    87
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    2 months ago

    In Canada a pint is a legal measurement of 20oz / 568ml

    If you advertise beer on the menu as a pint, it must be at least 19.5oz excluding head(allowable margin of error)

    What happens though is countless places advertise a pint, and then give you something like 16-18oz which is against the law.

    It’s gets harder tell what you’re getting as well when they serve in non standard pint glasses, or glasses without a pint mark.

    • @Treczoks@lemmy.world
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      82 months ago

      This is something that happens every year at the Oktoberfest in Munich. Legally, the “Maß” should be 1l, but the standards office regularly measure the contents way below that mark, even if one allows for a certain margin of error.

  • @sygnius@lemmy.world
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    382 months ago

    I’m usually against frivolous cases like this over nothing, but if he actually did measure that it’s impossible to hold 24 oz in a cup labeled that way, then he does have a good case. I think the case would be more on the supplier that provides the cups to Cinemark though, and less on the theater that’s taking the word of the supplier.

    • @RavindraNemandi@ttrpg.network
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      1142 months ago

      This is only frivolous if you think of it as being about 2 ounces of beer. Its not. Its about hundreds of thousands of people paying for something that they did not recieve. When you add it all up its quite a lot of stolen money! Also its absolutely Cinemark’s fault, even assuming they were given the wrong cups by the distributor (which is a bad assumption) its on Cinemark to make sure they are providing what they claim they are.

    • loobkoob
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      202 months ago

      I think the case would be more on the supplier that provides the cups to Cinemark though

      That’s a matter for Cinemark and their supplier to sort out (either through discussion or another lawsuit). This man had a contract with the vendor (Cinemark) which is why he’s suing them.

  • @jaybone@lemmy.world
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    272 months ago

    No one will care. They will pay whatever fine, and pay whatever members of this class, and then they will keep doing the same shit.

    • @AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
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      212 months ago

      Having owned, partly owned, or at least been very friendly with restaurant and bar owners…

      …no, no they do not. Maybe they do if you end up on some radar or something, or get reported? But in general day to day and inspections, no.

      • Echo Dot
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        72 months ago

        In the UK, and I suspect in other countries as well, you have to use the right cups and glasses for the right drinks. So for beer you will have to use the beer glass that the brewery provide. I don’t think you can just go out and get any old cup from a shop and use that. You have to use the calibrated ones.

      • @weariedfae@lemmy.world
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        12 months ago

        Apologies, I should have been more specific. I meant does some sort of regulation or team or anything involving weights and measures exist at all for food service? Or is the only thing the theaters did “wrong” in this case false advertising?

        I understand enforcement for an FDA regulation/whatever may be lacking. I’ve worked in a restaurant and other food service related places before but I was young and pretty low level so I wasn’t super tuned into the business side let alone laws/regulations outside of basic food handling.

    • @bamboo
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      142 months ago

      Wouldn’t this mean that beer would need to be 8% more dense than water for this to work out? Quickly searching online, it seems like beer is more like 1% more dense than water, depending on the type of beer, so not sure this is possible.

        • @funnystuff97@lemmy.world
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          132 months ago

          1 fl oz (volume) of water weighs about 1 oz (weight). It varies depending on a bunch of stuff, ya know, cause imperial sucks, but I believe the standard rate is 1 fl oz weighs about 1.043 oz. So assuming beer has similar density as water, 22 fl oz would weigh somewhere around 23 oz.

          (Some Google searches show that some definitions of fl oz has it as 1 fl oz = 30 ml exactly, but I’m starting to confuse myself and you know how infuriating imperial is.)

          • @Phrodo_00@lemmy.world
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            32 months ago

            The US customary units are officially defined on top of metric, and 1 fl oz is 29.5735295625 mL, but an oz is 28.349523125 g. I imagine this decision was just to fuck with people (since 1ml of water weighs 1g at sea level, at 4°)

  • Panda (he/him)
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    72 months ago

    Waldrop took the empty container home and measured how much it could hold, discovering it only held 22 ounces.

    Bro really pulled out the scientific instruments and everything 😭

    • @WindyRebel@lemmy.world
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      992 months ago

      If the amount I’m being priced for is that amount and you short me? Fuck yeah. We should never be ok with not getting what we paid for. There’s too much shrinkflation and deception.

      • norbert
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        2 months ago

        Yeah I’m with you, 2oz is nice big drink, if they’re saying it’s 24oz it needs to be at least 24oz.