A Chinese lawyer has sued McDonald's in
China for using
mostly English, not Chinese, on its receipts, violating his right
to information, media reported on Friday.
The lawyer, identified only as Shan, decided to take legal
action against the world's largest restaurant chain after he ate at
two McDonald's restaurants in Beijing in May and June.
In this file photo a man walks past a
McDonald's outlet in Beijing April 2, 2007. [Reuters]
"McDonald's offers food service in China, but it does not use
Chinese, which violates the consumers' right to know," the Beijing
Youth Daily quoted Shan as saying.
Shan has asked McDonald's to apologize in newspapers and give
him symbolic compensation of 1 yuan (13 US cents), the newspaper
said. The case began on Thursday.
The newspaper quoted McDonald's as saying it was not fair to
accuse the company of not using Chinese as its advertisements and
menus were all in Chinese and its staff all spoke Chinese.
The receipts had changed into Chinese since July, it said. The
company was not immediately available for comment.
Cases of east-meets-west culture clashes have been widely
reported in China since the country embraced economic reforms in
the late 1970s.
Earlier this month, a controversial Starbucks coffee shop in the
Forbidden City, the former imperial palace at the heart of Beijing,
closed its doors after facing years of opposition.
(China Daily July 28, 2007)
