Settlement Reversed In 11 Inch “Foot-Long” Case

The 7th Circuit reversed a Milwaukee federal judge’s approval of a $520,000 settlement in a case questioning whether Subway’s “foot-long” sandwiches were always 12 inches long. The three-judge panel said the settlement yielded “zero benefits for the class” and should not have been approved. Judge Diane Sykes wrote that early discovery showed Subway had reasonable standards about how much dough was in sandwich loaves, and minor variations in length were not preventable, given the nature of baking. The 2015 settlement plan would have paid 10 plaintiff law firms a little more than half a million dollars. Class members, people who purchased Subway subs since 2003, would have gotten nothing but some assurances about the length of a “foot-long” in the future.