I think the point I was trying to make here is that, essentially and for all practical purposes, Disney is just a landlord here. A ton of people seem to be cheering on Disney being added to the suit, but I think that’s terrible for the long-term chilling effects likely to happen in this case.
Because they are “essentially” their landlord, and because megacorporations rarely end up affected by this sort of suit, I think that the outcome of being a defendant in this case is could to lead to chilling effects for anyone with even an ancillary relationship with restaurants insisting on no claims of being allergen-friendly being made.
Now, perhaps most folks have never tried to travel with folks with food allergies, but I can tell you straight up that it fucking sucks. Every meal is already this crazy maze of faith, obscure processes and often eating bland, prepackaged crap just to minimize risk. And that’s from the vanishingly small number of restaurants even willing to assume this risk in the first place.
If a case like this for “only” a landlord results in liability transferred to disney, I seriously worry that those without the deep pockets of disney are going to outright require that their tenants not state that they are allergen-friendly to avoid this happening to them.
In the process of saying “yeah! Fuck Disney” I think we are about to see every mall suddenly go from one or two acceptable places for those with food allergies to eat at to NONE, because why asssume that risk now from your tenants?
Too often in these cases everyone forgets that the real victims here are people just trying to have a normal vacation while navigating terrible allergen risks. I believe the unintended consequences of having Disney-as-essentially-landlord attached to this case is about to make that situation way fucking worse for those same people, and its going to happen with people cheering it on the whole way.
This isn’t about legal theories, this is about the little guys getting fucked over again because large megacorps are never, ever the ones who feel the brunt of these sorts of actions.
At minimum, Disney springs is about to become allergy unfriendly. More likely, Disney will wash their hands of this liability entirely across their properties, followed by everyone else. and who suffers? The little people who are trying to have a vacation and navigate this shit.
