Examining Discrimination and Fair Hospitality in the Coffee Industry and Beyond

Is ordering a latte for oat milk and paying extra discrimination? Dunkin’ donuts, the largest donut brand in the United States, was sued to court and demanded US$5 million in damages, which is equivalent to more than NT$156 million, triggering a global discussion! Former Executive Dean and Chairman of New Generation Financial Institution Chen Chongjin wrote an article “Cup of Coffee: Fair Hospitality” on the 17th. He believed that on the surface, “discrimination and fair hospitality are two sides of the same coin. “But should morality be elevated to Legal obligations are also related to the Chinese people’s interpretation of fairness and discrimination. Recently, The Financial Supervisory Commission has demanded that the financial industry treat customers fairly. However, Chen Chong mentioned that the current regulations for the elderly or those with financial money are only “administrative guidelines” and have no disadvantages. what to do with Financial Supervisory Commission regulations We hope to protect consumers with good intentions, but we don’t want claims disputes to arise and consequences that are difficult to resolve.

Extended reading: Is the machine tool industry accused of making “war money”? Chen Chong revealed that the history of Toshiba Japan’s “repentance” is repeating itself: the chairman steps down and the prime minister apologizing

Dunkin’ is being sued for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for swapping coffee for oat milk. Chen Chong talks about the boundaries of fair hospitality. Image/retrieval from Getty Images (Photography by Michelle Lee via Getty Images)

A cup of coffee is also associated with treating guests fairly? Recently, a well-known donut brand in the US that starts with D claims to offer 25,000 ways to order coffee. However, a user who is “lactose intolerant” asked to remove lactose from the milk or change it to plant milk when ordering a latte. , Company D said it would increase fees from US$0.15 to US$2.15, and was sued in court for violating the famous ADA Act “Americans with Disabilities Act”, seeking damages of US$5 million.

The following is the full text of Chen Chong’s article

Basically, donuts are part of American culture, and recently, due to a lawsuit, we’ve started to cover the news. In the United States, there are many well-known donut brands, In order to avoid suspicion of advertising, Quan is called brand D. If you browse the website of brand D company, you can find many numbers that it is proud of, such as sales 60 cups of coffee per second, in other words, 2 billion cups per year; (Strange, it doesn’t sell doughnuts?)

Yes, the company recommends pairing donuts with coffee! What’s more, the company’s base in Spain is named after coffee. Another interesting number is also linked to coffee. On the website, the company claims there are 25,000 ways to order coffee, regardless of the type of coffee, adding different flavors such as caramel, coconut, vanilla , almond, blueberry, etc. there are many choices, I believe no one has counted them carefully. The lawsuit filed at the beginning of this article was caused by 25,000 click methods.

The original intention of the famous ADA law in the United States was to protect employment, education and residence.

At the beginning of this year, a lawyer in California filed a consumer group lawsuit. The plaintiff was lactose intolerant and requested that the milk in the coffee be lactose-free or replaced with plant-based milk. Company D responded that having to pay an additional US$0.5-2.15 would not trigger a discrimination dispute. The United States has had the Americans with Disabilities Act, also known as the ADA, since 1990. Its original intention was to protect people with disabilities from employment discrimination. Later, due to the expansion of the scope of interpretation of “Disabilities”, Controversies and disputes continue to increase.

This lawsuit calls for about 50 people, and the amount of damages is as high as 5 million US dollars. Of course, for ordinary people, if a cup of coffee that was originally added with milk is replaced by soybeans, oats, coconut or almond milk, the notice states that amounts ranging from 0.5 to 2.15 yuan are no more than different selling prices reflect costs, and there is no issue of discrimination. However, because consumers claim to be patients with diseases under the ADA law, they should not receive different benefits based on their diseases, and they claim discrimination. Currently many similar cases and they are heard by different courts.

The original intent of the ADA legislation is to prevent people from suffering discrimination or unfair treatment in employment, education, and housing because of illness or physical or mental disabilities. If the original intent of the legislation is not distorted, it can be modified just to avoid allergens (or preferences taste) in food Coffee recipes are priced differently depending on the recipe Talking about discrimination seems an exaggeration. However, the plaintiff’s lawyer argued that Company D only made it known in the notice that if he was allergic to a specific raw material, he had to inform the service staff, and as for the remedy, he would impose a surcharge. However, the ADA law requires that in assisting people with disabilities to solve their problems, there should be no non-discriminatory treatment (discrimination), and no additional fees should be required. Everyone has their own opinion on the case, which is right and which is wrong, let’s wait and see. (wait and see)

What would happen if the donut case happened in Taiwan?

If the D-brand donut case happened in Taiwan, because Taiwan also has a “Law on Protecting the Rights and Interests of People with Disabilities,” Article 5 of the law also includes dysfunctions in digestion and metabolism, but it has no to do it. with education and employment conditions Worried about legislative intent? Will the order of business be disrupted? The lack of mutual trust in interpersonal relationships? In fact, this also includes the Chinese people’s interpretation of non-discrimination and fair treatment.

On the surface, non-discrimination and fair treatment are two sides of the same coin, and they also mean elevating morality to legal obligations. For similar issues, in 2015, in order to protect the rights and interests of financial users and avoid a recurrence . of the 2008 financial tsunami, the Financial Supervisory Commission referred to Article 165 of the Administrative Procedure Law as The legal basis states the principle of fair treatment of guests and has good intentions. However, all walks of life have their own interpretations of fair treatment of guests.

The financial industry has been discriminating against customers on the basis of “risk classification” for many years

In fact, in the early days, financial institutions classified and managed customers based on risk and credit, this was purely risk management and had nothing to do with discrimination. After KYC became popular, this classification became more detailed. Eighty percent of the Financial Supervisory Commission’s guiding principles are already contained in the “Financial Consumer Protection Act”, and the remaining provisions have been scattered in various financial regulations for a long time. Basically , they can only be summarized and compiled. The only provisions relating to fairness or discrimination should be declaratory provisions which refer to customers who are financially disadvantaged or elderly customers Article 165 of the Administrative Procedure Act has already stated that they are administrative guidelines only. Therefore, only the efforts of the FSC should provide fair treatment. to protect users. It is a symbol, and I hope it will not cause the sequelae of ADA.

Continue reading the story

Donuts and coffee are priced differently depending on the ingredients added Other industries treat customers fairly, but law enforcement should be enough! Doesn’t corporate governance also require equal treatment of all shareholders?

• Yahoo Finance special correspondent Ye Yiru: With more than 20 years of experience in the mainstream financial media, from the Web1.0 bubble in 2000 to the Meta Yuanverse Web3.0, he has seen the rise and fall of Taiwan’s large and small business groups, and has experienced five international financial groups crises. We believe that finance is life and everywhere, no matter how difficult financial information is, we should explain it in a simple way. Everyone, young and old, should manage money. If you don’t manage money, money won’t worry about you.

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