Speaking of Free Things

This tale from the Starbucks file might be fun for a discussion of mutual assent and consideration:

Starbucks Corp. was sued for $114 million Friday overits recall last week of a coupon that entitled the holder to a freelarge iced drink being promoted by the Seattle coffee retailer.

Peter Sullivan, the lawyer who sued on behalf of a 23-year-oldStarbucks regular who felt “betrayed” when her coupon was not honored,accused the company of fraud and said he will request class-actionstatus to include the “thousands who were misled” by the offer.

On Aug. 23, Starbucks e-mailed the coupon for the free grande drinkto select employees with instructions for them to forward the coupon tofriends and family. The offer was valid through Sept. 30.

But, Sullivan said, Starbucks got jittery and refused to honor thecoupon after the company saw how widely it had been distributed. “Ibelieve they were surprised by how successful the promotion was,” thelawyer said.

“The excuse proffered by Starbucks, that they did not believe thatan offer released over the Internet would be so widely distributed, isridiculous,” Sullivan said. “Clearly, Starbucks chose to initiate aviral marketing campaign to counteract their slumping sales.”

A spokeswoman for Starbucks said company officials had seenSullivan’s press release but not his court papers and would have noimmediate comment.

Sullivan said he saw lines of coupon-carrying caffeine customersoutside Starbucks coffee shops in New York in response to thepromotion, and when they could not redeem the coupons “they felt letdown and angry.”

One of those people, Sullivan said, was his client, Kelly Coakley ofQueens, who works as a paralegal and administrative assistant.

The $114 million the lawsuit asks for approximates the average costof one cup of Starbucks coffee a day for all of the people turned awayfor the 38 days the offer was valid, Sullivan said. “That’s a veryconservative figure,” he said.

He did not explain how they determined how many people had tried to redeem the coupon.

[Meredith R. Miller / HT: Isaac Samuels, 1L]