Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Werner, W. B.
Right arrow Articles by Hardigree, C. E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

The Risk to the American Fast-Food Industry of Obesity Litigation

William B. Werner

Department of Hotel Management at the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, william.werner{at}unlv.edu

Andrew Hale Feinstein

Department of Food and Beverage Management, andyf{at}unlv.edu

Christian E. Hardigree

Department of Hotel Management, christian.hardigree{at}unlv.edu

This article examines the problem of obesity in the United States, the role fast food is believed to play in obesity, and the prospects of legal claims against quick-service operations for obesity-related damages. Our literature and case review analyzes the potential validity of obesity-related claims under existing and novel legal theories of liability. The status of legislative proposals to ban obesity lawsuits is discussed and several recommendations are offered to protect quick-service owners and operators from the potential risk of obesity litigation. The article concludes that damages for obesity and obesity-related illnesses may be awarded against fast-food companies under existing liability law, but that such cases are unlikely to succeed and can be efficiently avoided.

Key Words: obesity litigation • quick-service restaurants • law • product liability

Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 2, 201-214 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0010880407300907
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?