Nation’s Restaurant News:
A Long John Silver’s franchisee has filed a lawsuit against quick-service seafood competitor Captain D’s and its parent company, Sagittarius Restaurants, accusing them of deceptive trade practices.
According to court papers filed this week in the Circuit Court for Knox County, Tenn., Captain D’s allegedly ran advertisements in July that offered to honor coupons from local Long John Silver’s restaurants that had closed. The text in the Knoxville News Sentinel read: “With the closing of Long John Silver’s we will Honor any competitor coupons and be Happy to Serve You.â€
The problem, according to the market’s Long John Silver’s franchisee, D-Sea Inc., is that no stores in the Knoxville area had actually closed. D-Sea, which is calling for $260,000 in compensatory damages, as well as undetermined punitive damages, court costs and lawyers fees, operates 14 restaurants and said just one location in Loudon County, a separate market than Knoxville, had closed. D-Sea is accusing Captain D’s of deceptive trade practices, misrepresentation and consumer law violations, among other charges.