Disney withdraws objection to streaming ban after woman dies from allergy at resort | Walt Disney Company

Disney has dropped a controversial lawsuit alleging that the terms and conditions a widower agreed to when signing up for its Disney+ streaming service were designed to protect the company from a wrongful death suit brought by the plaintiff over the death of his wife after she dined at a resort restaurant.

On Monday evening, Josh D'Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences, announced in a statement that Disney had decided to take the matter to court rather than through arbitration, as the company had sought last week.

“At Disney, we strive to put humanity above all other considerations,” D'Amaro said. “In such unique circumstances as this case, we believe this situation requires a sensitive approach to expedite a resolution for the family who have suffered such a painful loss. For this reason, we have decided to waive our right to arbitration and take the matter to court.”

Disney made headlines last week after its lawyers asked a Florida judge to dismiss the wrongful death lawsuit and settle all disputes with the company out of court through arbitration. The company's lawyers argued that the widower agreed to Disney's terms of service – which state that users agree to settle all disputes with the company out of court through arbitration – when he signed up for a one-month free trial of Disney+ in 2019 and again in 2023 when he purchased the Disney theme park tickets through his Disney+ account.

In court documents, Disney's lawyers argued that the terms of use contained an arbitration clause that applied to “all disputes,” including those involving “The Walt Disney Company or its subsidiaries,” and that Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.

Daniel Zuniga, a partner at the law firm Personal Injury of Florida, called the argument “unconscionable.” “The consequences of such a verdict or decision could be catastrophic for the average citizen,” he told the Guardian when the lawsuit was announced. “Big conglomerates just keep getting bigger, so how far up the chain can it go?”

Jeffrey Piccolo filed the wrongful death lawsuit against Walt Disney World and Resorts and a resort restaurant earlier this year after his wife, Dr. Kanokporn Tangsuan, died in October 2023 while dining at the resort's Raglan Road Irish Pub near Orlando, Florida.

In the lawsuit, Piccolo claims his wife's death was due to an allergic reaction. This claim is supported by a medical examiner's report, which determined the cause of death to be anaphylactic shock due to increased amounts of dairy and nuts in her body.

Piccolo says that while eating at the resort's restaurant, he and his wife questioned the waiter several times because Tangsuan has a severe milk and nut allergy, but the waiter assured them that their order was allergen-free.

The lawsuit accuses the wait staff of negligence and seeks damages from Disney in excess of $50,000.

Disney's statement on Monday represents a complete reversal from the position the company took last week, when a spokesperson defended the company's legal strategy, saying:

“We are deeply saddened by the family's loss and understand their grief. Because this restaurant is neither owned nor operated by Disney, we are simply defending ourselves against the plaintiff's attorney's attempt to include us in his lawsuit against the restaurant.”

Piccolo's lawyers had called Disney's reasoning for the dismissal “surreal” in court documents, and personal injury and wrongful death lawyers had called Disney's arguments legally far-fetched.

The litigation is ongoing and a hearing is scheduled for October 2.