Don't plan on suing Disney if you ever sign up. Disney+ The account, as This appears to preclude you from having the right to a jury trial.At least that's what the company claims after a wrongful death lawsuit was filed against it. Following the death of NYU doctor Kanokporn Tangsuwan At Disney Springs Resort in October 2023. Tangsuan died after developing an allergic reaction to food she ate at the resort, and now her widower, Jeffrey Piccolo, wants justice in the form of $50,000.
According to the New York Post , Disney claims that because Piccolo signed up for a free trial of its streaming service in 2019 on his PlayStation, the case should be “resolved through binding, individual arbitration.” Disney also says he agreed to the same terms when he used its My Disney Experience app to purchase tickets to the resort in September 2023, a month before his wife died. Piccolo’s attorneys called the company’s claims “grossly unreasonable” in a motion filed Aug. 2.
“The notion that the terms a consumer agrees to when creating a free trial for Disney+ would forever bar that consumer’s right to a jury trial in any dispute with any Disney subsidiary or affiliate is so unreasonable and unfair as to shock the judicial conscience, that this Court should not enforce such an agreement.”
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Piccolo is seeking up to $50,000 in damages to cover funeral expenses, loss of income, and emotional pain and suffering. Tangsuwan, 42, died following an allergic reaction after eating at the Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant on Oct. 5, 2023, collapsing shortly after eating her meal. The lawsuit alleges she repeatedly told the waitstaff she was allergic to nuts and dairy after ordering oysters, onion rings, broccoli and corn fritters. Despite self-injecting herself with an EpiPen, she later died at the hospital from “anaphylaxis due to high levels of dairy and nuts in her system.”
Disney Hides Suspicious Terms in Subscriber Agreements
Disney claims that its subscription agreements guarantee that any disputes, including the death of a loved one, will be settled by arbitration rather than a jury. By signing up for a free trial of Disney+ five years ago and using its app to buy tickets, Piccolo agreed to those terms, which prevent him from suing Disney, the company says. As such, Disney is now trying to dismiss the wrongful death lawsuit before it can go before a judge.
The lawsuit highlights not only what’s in Disney’s terms of service, but also other streaming services’ terms of service. Most of the time, users ignore all that legal jargon before signing up for something, without knowing what’s in it. Apparently, Disney expects everyone to review its agreements very carefully so that when something tragic like this happens, we can all take appropriate action — which doesn’t give us the right to a jury of our peers. It’s ridiculous, to say the least. With Netflix opening physical stores in 2025, does that mean that if a shelf falls on someone’s head due to shoddy construction, Netflix can’t be held liable for their streaming subscription?
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Needless to say, we think Disney’s claims are pretty ridiculous, and Piccolo should be allowed to proceed with his lawsuit. With Disney once again raising streaming prices thanks to its own fallacies, and having made a total profit of $31 billion last year, they can surely afford to pay $50,000.
