Case 21: McDo The Coffee Spill Heard Round the World
1. What are the major issues in the Liebeck case and in the following incidents? Was the lawsuit
regarding safety and treatment of
consumers?
These cases are about product safety and responsiveness to consumers. In its desire to please
2. What are McDonalds social (economic, legal, and ethical) responsibilities toward
consumers in the Liebeck case and the other cases? What are consumers responsibilities when
they buy a product such as hot coffee or hot hamburgers? How does a company give consumers
what they want and yet protect them at the same time?
3. What are the argu Liebeck case? What are the
a chance?
4. If you had been a juror in the Liebeck case, which position would you most likely have
supported? Why? What if you had been a juror in the pickle burn case?
Case Discussion Q&A, Business & Society, Carroll 10e
5. What are the similarities and differences between the coffee burn cases and the pickle burn
case? Does one represent a more serious threat to consumer harm? What should McDonald’s,
and other fast food restaurants, do about hot food, such as hamburgers, when consumers are
injured?
6. Why did Ste
responsibility toward consumers?
7. ? Is this making light of a problem that is too
serious?
8. Do we now live in a
carelessness in using products? We live in a society that is growing older. Does this fact place a
special responsibility on merchants who sell products to senior citizens?
