196

The TL;DR is that a lady died in a Disney park due to being served a dish with shellfish cross-contamination.

The park was negligent in serving her the food, because she had clarified with the server that she was allergic to shellfish, and the server assured her there wouldn’t be any cross-contamination, and that the kitchen would take proper safety precautions. Either the server didn’t relay that to the kitchen, or the kitchen didn’t do their due diligence. But either way, someone employed by Disney seriously fucked up, and a person died as a result.

The (now widowed) husband sued for wrongful death. Disney’s defense has basically been “he can’t sue us, because he agreed to binding arbitration. He downloaded a free trial of Disney+ on his Xbox two years ago, and that 7-day free trial’s ToS had a binding arbitration clause. Even though the free trial only lasted 7 days, the binding arbitration clause didn’t have an end date so it is in force in perpetuity.” Basically, Disney claims that he (and her estate) can’t sue Disney for killing his wife, because of a free trial that he never even subscribed to; He deleted the app from his Xbox after the free trial ended.

It’s currently in the courts now, with a judge set to rule on whether or not the binding arbitration clause should apply. And if they set the precedent that it applies, then capitalism has truly won and we’ll be in the end-stages where you’re not allowed to sue any company ever, because they all have binding arbitration clauses.