Customer Sues TGI Fridays For $5 Million Claiming The Company’s Potato Skin Snacks Are A Fraud

A customer is suing the restaurant chain TGI Fridays claiming that the snacks being marketed as potato skins are actually a fraud — and she wants $5 million in damages.

The lawsuit claims that the bagged snacks sold both in stores and in vending machines are not really potato skins, as the company advertises, but instead “potato flakes” or “potato starch.” As Fox News noted, that led the New York woman to take the restaurant chain to court, demanding $5 million after saying she felt defrauded into buying the $1.99 snacks

As the report noted, Solange Troncoso from the Bronx filed suit in Manhattan federal court asserting that company saying the snacks are potato skins is a deceptive claim and that by federal law the company must state that it is actually an imitation of another food. Troncoso claimed that the company is purposely trying to deceive customers into thinking they are eating potato skins, which are seen as healthier than potato chips.

“The Idaho Potato Commission and others inside and outside the industry have associated potato skins with healthy eating since they started appearing on restaurant menus a half-century ago,” the lawsuit read.

This is not the first time a restaurant chain has been sued for what a customer sees as false or misleading advertising. Last year, a Canadian man filed suit against McDonald’s claiming that the fast-food chain violated laws in Quebec by aiming advertising for the unhealthy Happy Meals at children under the age of 13.

As the BBC reported, the Canadian province has strict laws against advertising aimed and minors. A father of three in Quebec sparked a class action lawsuit claiming that McDonald’s uses colorful toys and tie-ins with popular movies to attract children to the Happy Meals, which lawyers believed was a violation of the law aimed at marketing to children.

“In today’s world, parents have to choose their battles. And what’s the easiest thing to give into? It’s to feed your children,” said Joey Zukran, the Montreal-based lawyer who filed the class action lawsuit against McDonald’s.

A spokesperson for McDonald’s said the company was reviewing the legal claim in the lawsuit but believed that it was without merit.

There have been other lawsuits claiming that the company improperly targets children in its advertising and the use of toys in the Happy Meal, Fox News noted.

TGI Fridays sued by Bronx woman for 'fake' potato skins https://t.co/CdKRrg0gY2 pic.twitter.com/cDCyBZynsS

— New York Post (@nypost) March 27, 2019

TGI Fridays did not have a comment on the $5 million lawsuit claiming its potato skins are fraudulent.