Illegal user-generated content slanders meatless sandwichez
9:05AM ON
01/30/2008
BY
Ari Savitzky
That’s right. You thought it was fine to poke fun at fast-food sandwich rivals with your YouTube and your digital camera and contest challenging netizens to “depict Quiznos sandwiches as ’superior’ to Subway’s.” You were wrong. And you’re being slapped with a massive civil suit.
Subway promptly sued Quiznos and iFilm, the Web site owned by Viacom that ran the contest, saying that many of the homemade videos made false claims and depicted its brand in a derogatory way. Subway is also objecting to ads that Quiznos itself created, showing people on the street choosing Quiznos over Subway.
The dispute over an ad is fairly standard — companies often sue one another over advertising claims — but the video contest raises a novel legal question: Quiznos did not make the insulting submissions, so should it be held liable for user-generated content created at its behest?
See the winner of the libel-fest above. Legal questions aside though, what ever happened to that Quizno’s downtown?
Also, this is all apparently because the contestants said that Subway’s sandwiches were meatless, a claim which, Veggie Delite notwithstanding, is inaccurate.
In its lawsuit, Subway contends that the consumer videos — which were posted at a site Quiznos had set up called meatnomeat.com, as well as on iFilm — contained “literally false statements” and depicted Subway in a “disparaging manner.”
Themz fightin Wurdz.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:03PM
jon Says:
Ari, good news– it’s back!! Tofu ate a piece of Quiznos bread off the ground outside the shiny refurbished shop.
[Reply]
February 7th, 2008 at 1:23PM
I’m suing Quizno’s for Sammie-infringement | Providence Daily Dose Says:
[...] know Quizno’s legal department probably has a lot on their hands already, but I think I have no choice but to sue. Popping into their new Dorrance street location I noticed [...]