General Mills Withdraws Controversial Legal Terms
Last week, General Mills published an update to the company's privacy policy and new guidelines regarding consumers' rights to legal action against the company.
Under the new policy, consumers who interacted with General Mills on social media, or participated in any promotions from the company, were required to submit to informal arbitration over filing a lawsuit against the company, should they need any dispute resolution.
The change in policy, which suggested that something as innocuous as "liking" the General Mills Facebook page meant a change in the legal options available to you, was quickly met with anger and confusion from General Mills customers.
The issue was also closely followed by The New York Times, which likely contributed to the public awareness of General Mills' policy changes.
In response to the public concern about the company's vague new terms, a General Mills spokesperson announced in an email on Saturday, April 19th that the company would remove the new legal terms, and return to the previous terms, "which contain no mention of arbitration."
On the company's blog, General Mills wrote in depth about its decision to revert to the old legal terms, and apologized to consumers for creating so much confusion.
Karen Lo is an associate editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @appleplexy.