Jonathan Maze, the editor in chief of Restaurant Business magazine, said that while lawsuits against fast-food companies like Russo's may seem to lack merit, they can sometimes scare company executives into paying settlements "when they fear bad publicity."
In 2020, a California judge
approved a $6.5 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed against Chipotle over what was alleged to be a misleading non-GMO advertising campaign.
"Big or small, justice is justice, and laws are laws," Russo said, "and just because something happens to appear in someone’s opinion to be minor doesn’t mean that it is."
He said he was seeking greater transparency in industry advertising more broadly.
"If I’m advertising a vehicle, you don’t Photoshop it to enhance it," he said. "Sure, maybe you shoot it in its best light, but certainly you don’t make it misleading. That’s really the basis for these kinds of lawsuits."