Well, it's been a rough ride for Chipotle lately, and it looks like things are about to get worse. Like way worse. Potentially $2 billion dollars worse. According to GrubStreet, a woman named Leah Caldwell is suing the fast casual chain for using her photo on promotion materials without her consent. Caldwell is asking for exactly $2,237,633,000, which is supposedly the amount Chipotle gained from using her photo over the course of a nine-year period.
The claim states that while sitting at a Chipotle location in Denver back in 2006, Caldwell was photographed by a food photographer named Steve Adams. She didn't sign the form that would have allowed Chipotle to use the photograph and thought that was the end of it. Then, eight years later, she saw the photo up inside a Florida location of the chain. Imagine walking into a restaurant and completely unexpectedly seeing a photo of yourself. Needless to say, it would be weird. The photo was also apparently being used at two different Sacramento locations a year after that.
GrubStreet reported that part of the reason Caldwell was so bothered by the situation is that alcohol had been Photoshopped into picture. By now, Chipotle has a lot of experience getting itself out of sticky situations, but we'll have to see how they handle this billion (with a B) dollar controversy.
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