AN EPIC TRIAL
The longest court case in Britain's history ended in a costly victory for McDonald's Corp of the US when two British environmental activists were ordered to pay the company US $98,000 in damages. The case cost the company a whopping US$16 million. In a trial that lasted for 314 days, a British court ruled on June 19 that most of the anti-McDonald statements published by the defendants in the late 1980s were defamatory and untrue. Some of the charges deemed false by the court were that the company was selling unhealthy food, destroying rainforests and causing starvation in the developing countries. However, the court held the company responsible for cruel treatment of animals and unfair trade practices.