Disney+ Wrongful Death Lawsuit Loophole

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Overview

Disney+ Wrongful Death Lawsuit Loophole, also known as Disney Plus Wrongful Death Terms and Conditions, refers to a controversy stemming from Disney's attempts to evade a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the widower of a woman who died from an allergic reaction at a Disney Springs restaurant by citing the terms of use the man agreed to while signing up for Disney+ years prior. According to Disney, the terms of use agreed upon by customers when they sign up for a subscription or buy amusement park tickets means they have to settle out of court. After the news broke in mid-August 2024, various internet users posted memes and jokes about how comically evil they found Disney's corporate practices to be.

Background

On August 14th, 2024, several news outlets reported on Disney's attempts to get a man named Jeffrey Piccolo to settle a wrongful death lawsuit out of court, citing the man's Disney+ one-month free trial from 2019. Mr. Piccolo filed a lawsuit against Disney after his wife died from a severe allergic reaction after eating at a Disney Springs restaurant in Orlando, Florida near Disney World despite being assured that her meal was allergen-free. According to Disney, the terms of use Mr. Piccolo agreed to while creating his Disney account in 2024 mean that he has to settle any disputes with the company via arbitration.^[1]^[2]

The story quickly made the rounds online as various internet users discussed the news on August 14th, including the subreddit /r/news,^[3] where a post about Disney's attempts to sidestep litigation gathered over 24,000 upvotes and 1,800 comments in a day (seen below).

Online Reactions

On August 14th, 2024, several X / Twitter users posted memes about Disney trying to make it so that signing up for a television service absolves them of any litigation attempts, including X^[4] user @Lunwi88, who gathered over 91,000 likes on a Trade Offer meme in one day (seen below, left).

Also on August 14th, X^[5] user @king_of_limb posted an image of what appears to be Mickey Mouse pointing a gun at someone, writing, "disney legally executing me after I called the newest marvel film slop because I didn't read the fine print when I went to disneyland in 1998," and gathering over 40,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

On August 14th, X^[6] user @FamlolXD posted a South Park clip, writing, "holy fuck this is literally the south park episode I recommend y'all cancel your disney plus subscriptions lol," gathering over 72,000 likes in a day (seen below).

Later on August 14th, 2024, X^[7] user @RowbyYT posted a Yeonmi Park on Joe Rogan Parody meme, writing, "In America, if you watch an episode of the Mandalorian, they get to kill your wife," and gathering over 200,000 likes in a day (seen below, left).

Also on August 14th, X^[8] user @Rothmus posted a meme from Barbie to discuss the lawsuit, gathering over 5,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).