Don’t plan on suing Disney if you’ve ever signed up for a Disney+ account, as apparently that bars you from the right to a jury trial. At least that’s what the company is claiming following a wrongful death lawsuit that was filed against it following the death of NYU doctor Kanokporn Tangsuan at a Disney Springs resort in October 2023. Tangsuan died following an allergic reaction to food she consumed at the resort, and now her widower, Jeffrey Piccolo, wants justice in the form of $50,000.
Per The New York Post, Disney claims that because Piccolo signed up for a free trial to its streaming service in 2019 on his Playstation, the case should be “resolved by individual binding arbitration.” Furthermore, Disney says that he agreed to the same terms when he used their app, My Disney Experience, to buy tickets to the resort in September 2023, a month before his wife’s passing. Lawyers for Piccolo called the company’s claims “outrageously unreasonable” in a motion filed on August 2.
“The notion that terms agreed to by a consumer when creating a Disney+ free trial account would forever bar that consumer’s right to a jury trial in any dispute with any Disney affiliate or subsidiary, is so outrageously unreasonable and unfair as to shock the judicial conscience, and this court should not enforce such an agreement.”
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Piccolo is seeking damages upwards of $50,000 for funeral expenses, loss of income, and mental pain and suffering. Tangsuan, 42, died following an allergic reaction after eating at the Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant on October 5, 2023, collapsing shortly after her meal. The lawsuit claims that she repeatedly told the waitstaff that she had an allergy to nuts and dairy products after ordering scallops, onion rings, broccoli, and corn fritters. Despite self-administering an EpiPen, she later died at the hospital from “anaphylaxis due to elevated levels of dairy and nuts in her system.”
Disney Is Hiding Shady Terms in Its Subscriber Agreements
Disney claims that its subscriber agreements warrant any disputes, including the death of a loved one, to be settled by arbitration rather than by a jury. Thanks to Piccolo signing up for a free trial of Disney+ five years ago and using their app to buy tickets, the company says that he agreed to those terms which prevent him from taking Disney to court. As such, Disney is now trying to get the wrongful death suit thrown out before it can go in front of a judge.
The suit brings to light not only what’s in Disney’s terms of service, but other streaming services as well. Most times, users just skip over all that legal jargon before signing up for something, not knowing what’s in it. Apparently, Disney expects everyone to go over its agreements with a fine-tooth comb so that when something tragic like this happens, we can all take the appropriate action – which does not entitle us to a trial in front of a jury of our peers. It’s preposterous, to say the least. With Netflix opening up physical stores in 2025, does that mean if a shelf falls on someone’s head due to shoddy construction, Netflix can’t be held liable because of a streaming subscription?
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Needless to say, we think Disney’s claims are kind of ridiculous, and that Piccolo should definitely be allowed to move forward with his suit. With Disney raising its streaming prices yet again thanks to its own fallacies, and after raking in a gross profit of $31 billion last year, surely it can afford a measly $50,000.