The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the
Southern District of New York announced on Monday that it settled a
lawsuit with Katz’s Deli over violations of the Americans with
Disabilities Act at the Lower East Side landmark.
The kosher-style restaurant agreed to pay a
$20,000 fine and improve its facilities for disabled people through a
consent decree.
“The main entrance of Katz’s Deli is not
accessible, the restaurant does not provide sufficient dining surfaces
for persons with disabilities and despite having been renovated in 2018,
its restrooms fail to comply with the ADA,” the U.S. attorney’s office
stated.
“Notably, the consent decree provides for
staff to assist individuals with disabilities in using the main public
entrance, ensures that the required number of accessible dining surfaces
are provided and requires renovations to the men’s and women’s
restrooms at Katz’s Deli,” the Justice Department stated.
Founded in 1888 as Iceland Brothers across
the street from the current deli location, Katz’s bills itself as New
York City’s oldest deli and is famous for its towering pastrami-on-rye
sandwiches, matzah ball soup and other Ashkenazi staples in what was
once the center of Eastern European Jewish migration to the United
States.
It is also widely known for its depiction in the 1989 comedy “When Harry Met Sally….”
“During World War II, the three sons of
the owners were all serving their country in the armed forces, and the
family tradition of sending food to their sons became the company slogan
‘send a salami to your boy in the Army,’” per Katz’s site.
“During the peak of the Yiddish theater,
the restaurant was forever filled with actors, singers and comedians
from the many theaters on 2nd Avenue, as well as the National Theater on
Houston Street,” it adds. “Although the age of the Yiddish theater has
passed, Katz’s still has its fair share of famous customers, whose
photos now line our walls.”
The U.S. attorney’s office said that its
deal with Katz’s brings to a close its 13-year “Manhattan Restaurants
ADA Compliance Initiative,” which evaluated the accessibility of the 50
most popular restaurants in the borough, as rated by the 2011 Zagat
guide.
https://www.jns.org/feds-settle-with-katzs-deli-over-ada-violations/?
Versus A Country Run By Right Wing - Anti-Zionists - Ultra-Orthodox Jews:
Consumer body accuses Rami Levy supermarkets of violating bottle deposit law
Israel Consumer Council seeks court backing
for class action lawsuit after receiving over 1,000 complaints about
difficulties returning recyclables, getting refunds for deposits (OY VEY)
The Israel Consumer Council is seeking court approval of a class
action lawsuit against Rami Levy, after receiving more than 1,000
complaints about the supermarket chain’s stores refusing to accept
bottles for recycling and deposit fees.
The filing, submitted to the Beersheba District Court on December 18
and announced by the council this week, alleges that Rami Levy does not
allow bottles to be returned manually when collection machines are not
functioning, and limits the hours in which it accepts the recycled
bottles.
The request also cites cases in which stores have returned the
deposit through credit vouchers rather than cash, contrary to the law.
Since 2001, when the government passed the Deposit Law on Beverage
Containers, a refundable sum, usually of 30 agorot ($0.08), has been
added to the cost of all canned beverages, along with glass and plastic
bottles ranging from 100 milliliters to 1.5 liters in size, to encourage
people to return them after use. Since December 2021, the law has also
included containers of 1.5-5 liters.
But implementation has been anything but smooth.
According to a July 2023 report by the Knesset Research and
Information Center cited in the application, a bottle deposit complaints
hotline established by the Environmental Protection Ministry in
December 2021 and operated by the consumer council has received 9,010
complaints. Of these, 60 percent were filed over stores’ failure to
accept beverages marked with deposit labels.
Court rulings have since determined that the return of beverage
containers must not be limited to certain hours and that obstacles
should not be placed before those asking to return bottles in exchange
for a deposit.
The application said that between 2022 and 2024, the council received
1,017 complaints against Rami Levy — 139 in 2022, 323 in 2023 and 555
in 2024.
It alleged that Rami Levy stores refused to accept beverage
containers for which deposits had been paid on purchase, limited the
number of containers that could be refunded on a given day and the times
when bottles could be returned, issued refunds only as vouchers rather
than cash, and even refused to honor those vouchers after the day on
which they were produced. It further charged that the company refused to
accept beverage containers from minors, including in cases where
parents were present, and that customers had been subjected to
“humiliating and contemptuous behavior” by Rami Levy employees.
The council said requests to the company to change its behavior had
proved fruitless and that these were not one-off mistakes, or
oversights. “The evidence gathered indicates that the Deposit Law is
being systematically and intentionally violated by the respondent,” it
wrote.
The bottle deposit complaints hotline can be reached at 03-5100190.
A request for comment from the company’s legal adviser was not answered by press time.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/consumer-body-accuses-rami-levy-supermarkets-of-violating-bottle-deposit-law/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2025-01-01&utm_medium=email
