OMG, you won’t believe this wild drama. Jeffrey Piccolo tragically lost his wife, Dr. Kanokporn Tangsuan, after she had a severe allergic reaction at a Disney World restaurant. Naturally, he decided to sue Disney, thinking it was the right move after such a horrible incident. But Disney hit back with a shocking defense, claiming that Jeffrey couldn’t sue them because, years ago, he agreed to the Disney+ terms of service when signing up for a free trial. WTF?!
So, get this—they argued that when Jeffrey signed up for Disney+ in 2019, he unknowingly agreed to a mandatory arbitration clause buried in the terms of service. This meant he supposedly gave up his right to take Disney to court and couldn’t even join a class-action lawsuit if others were in the same boat. Like, seriously? How does a streaming service relate to a wrongful death at a restaurant? It’s totally mind-boggling.
The public was not having it. Consumer rights advocates were quick to jump on this, calling it out as a huge overreach. Mary Edwards, a well-known consumer rights attorney, said, “This is a gross abuse of the legal system. It’s one thing to require arbitration for disputes directly related to the service in question, but to extend that to a wrongful death claim that has nothing to do with the streaming service is both absurd and unethical.” Preach, Mary!
Disney quickly realized they were in hot water and backtracked hard. By August 22, 2024, they dropped the Disney+ argument and released a statement to do some damage control. They said, “While we believe in the importance of our terms of service, we recognize that this case involves sensitive and unique circumstances. We have decided to allow the lawsuit to proceed in court and will continue to work with Mr. Piccolo to reach a resolution.” Nice save, Disney, because that defense was seriously not it.
But the whole thing has already stirred up a huge conversation about these sneaky arbitration clauses that companies slip into all kinds of agreements. Now, lawmakers in several states are pushing for new regulations to make these clauses more transparent and to prevent companies from pulling stunts like this in the future.
So yeah, while Jeffrey’s lawsuit is moving forward (which makes total sense), this whole drama has turned into a major wake-up call for all of us. It’s making people realize just how much power these companies have over us because we click “I agree” without reading the fine print. I mean, who has time to read those massive terms of service, right? But maybe now, we’ll all think twice before we sign up for that next free trial or new app.
XOXO,
Valley Girl News
