A man in New York has filed a class-action lawsuit against Taco Bell, accusing the fast-food chain of overstating the amount of beef and other ingredients for many items on its menu.
"Taco Bell materially overstates the amount of beef and/or ingredients contained in its advertisements for the Overstated Menu Items by at least double the amount," the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit on Monday comes almost a year after the man, Frank Siragusa, purchased a Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell in September 2022, and noticed that it "contained approximately half of the beef and bean filling that he expected and looked like the images posted by other customers."
The lawsuit also cited a story from the U.S. Sun from September 15, 2022, where a reporter ordered the Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell and wrote that it does not "appear as advertised."
According to the lawsuit, in addition to the Mexican Pizza, Siragusa accused Taco Bell of false advertising on a number of other items, including the Crunchwrap Supreme.
Siragusa included numerous photos of the food items from Taco Bell, comparing the advertisements to the actual products he received. The photos provided in the lawsuit appear to show much less beef and other ingredients in the items he received, when compared to Taco Bell's photo ads. Siragusa provided comparing photos for the Crunchwrap Supreme, the Grande Crunchwrap, the Vegan Crunchwrap, the Mexican Pizza and the Vegan Mexican Pizza.
"Taco Bell's advertisements for the Overstated Menu Items are unfair and financially damaging to consumers as they are receiving a product that is materially lower in value than what is being promised," the lawsuit said.
"Taco Bell advertises larger portions of food to steer consumers to their restaurants for their meals and away from competitors that more fairly advertise the size of their menu items, unfairly diverting millions of dollars in sales that would have gone to competitors."
Newsweek reached out to Taco Bell via email for comment.
According to the lawsuit, Siragusa seeks to have Taco Bell end its "unfair" advertising practices as well as requesting monetary damages to compensate his purchases of the "overstated menu" items and "injunctive relief requiring Taco Bell to provide corrected advertising and/or to stop selling the Overstated Menu Items."
"The matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $5,000,000, exclusive of interest and costs, and this is a class action in which the number of members of the proposed class is not less than 100," the lawsuit added.
In a statement to Reuters, Siragusa's lawyer, Anthony Russo, said: "Taco Bell does not adequately disclose the weight of the beef or filling...Plaintiff did not make any purchases of the product based on any weight disclosure but solely based on the picture of the product, as we believe most consumers do."
Newsweek reached out to Russo via email for comment.
Update 7/31/23, 4:19 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information.
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