Idaho hockey fans are incensed that they paid $7 at a Boise arena for a cup of beer they thought contained more brew than the $4 cup — so they did the now-American thing and sued.
The suit accuses CenturyLink Arena, home of the Idaho Steelheads, of fraudulently charging customers $3 more for a “large,” which is served in a tall, narrow cup but actually holds about the same amount of beer as the shorter and wider “small” cup, the Associated Press reported.
The suit was filed in Boise’s 4th District Court, with the four plaintiffs seeking $10,000 in damages, according to AP.
One of the plaintiffs, Brady Peck, said he’s bought beer at more than 30 events at the arena in the past three years, AP reported. The other three plaintiffs say they’ve bought at least one $7 beer each week at events held over the last five years.
“While different shapes, both cup sizes hold substantially the same amount of liquid and are not large versus small in actual capacity,” Wyatt Johnson, the attorney for the group, said in court documents. “Defendants knowingly sold each of their beers in a similar manner at each event held in the arena where beer was sold for at least the last five years.”
The suit was filed days after a video was posted on YouTube showing a man pouring the larger cup of beer that’s sold at the arena into the smaller cup. The liquid level reaches almost to the brim in both cups.
The president of the Idaho Steelheads and the CenturyLink Arena defended the cups, saying the company had in fact ordered separate 16-ounce and 20-ounce containers and was not trying to dupe beer buyers, AP reported.
“It’s amazing what can be done with one little video and the power of social media,” the president, Eric Trapp, told the Idaho Statesman.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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