The world’s largest fast-food chain thought it closed the book on the embarrassing fiasco surrounding a series of promotional games in April 2003, when Judge Stephen Schiller of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill., approved a global settlement in Boland v. McDonald’s. But someone forgot about Canada.
In a February 2005 decision the Ontario Court of Appeal allowed a parallel Canadian class action to proceed despite an American settlement that purported to bind Canadian class members. The ruling in Currie v. McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Limited and Simon Marketing Inc. came as a rude surprise to American companies that expect Canadian courts to rubber stamp U.S. class action settlements. The decision means U.S. companies seeking an end to litigation by settling in a U.S. court have no assurance they will not face further exposure in Canada.
