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Subway is Finally Making Actual Footlong Sandwiches

By Dave Fawbert

27 October 2015

Never mind the great rock 'n' roll swindle. This has been the great sandwich swindle - a swindle of far more importance and seriousness.

A lawsuit in the US against Subway has now been settled, meaning that your footlong subs will now legally have to be at least a foot long, as the name suggests.

Previously to this, if you'd got your tape measure out - as a number of eagle-eyed consumers did - you might have noticed that on occasion, your six inch and foot long sandwiches were not actually reaching the required length. In layman's terms, you were being cheated out of sandwich that was rightfully yours. And no one like someone who lies about their length do they?

However, nine plaintiffs in Milwaukee refused to take this 'theft' lying down, and took out a class action against the franchise, alleging 'deceptive marketing'. Now a federal judge has approved a preliminary resolution which will see those nine receive $1,000 each, although technically anyone who bought a sandwich in the US since 2003 is entitled to a slice of the class action settlement - but that's not really feasible.

For their part, Subway insisted that due to natural variations, it “will never be able to guarantee that each loaf of bread will always be exactly 12 inches or greater in length after baking.” But now, according to court documents, stores will now be required to have a measurement tool available and adhere to regular compliance inspections.

According to court documents, franchisees would be required to have a measurement tool in stores and adhere to regular compliance inspections that would include measuring a sampling of baked bread to make sure loaves are 12-inches.

The settlement still has to be approved in federal court, with a hearing scheduled for 15 Jan and, presumably, the ruling will be rolled out worldwide - may justice prevail for our subway sandwiches.

(Image: Rex)