Subway (restaurant)

**Subway (restaurant)** is an American fast food restaurant chain that sells submarine sandwiches (or subs) and salads, and other unhealthy American foods. It was founded in 1965 as **Pete's Super Submarines**, and in 1968 as **Pete's Submarines**, then in 1969 as **Pete's Subs**, then again in 1970 as **Pete's Subway**, and finally in 1972 as **Subway**.

## History

### Founding as Pete's Super Submarines and renaming to Subway (1965-1968)

Subway was originally founded in 1965 as **Pete's Super Submarines**. It was renamed to just **Subway** in 1968.

### Growth and rapid expansion (1968-1990)

In 1968, when **Pete's Super Submarines** was renamed to **Subway**, the chain started to expand rapidly across the United States.

## Controversies and Lawsuits

### Subway footlong size controversy

In January 2013, an Australian teen named Matt Corby complained on Facebook that his Subway footlong was only 11 inches (28 cm) long instead of 1 foot (30 cm) long. Subway responded by saying, "With regards to the size of the bread and calling it a footlong, 'Subway Footlong' is a registered trademark as a descriptive name for the sub sold in Subway Restaurants and not intended to be a measurement of length." Discovery during a subsequent class-action lawsuit revealed that most Subway sandwiches were the advertised length. A $530,000 settlement was thrown out of court in 2017 for being "utterly worthless" to consumers.

### Subway yoga mat scandal

In 2014, a food blogger named Vani Hari accused Subway of using a chemical in their bread that was apparently also used in yoga mats and shoe soles. The complaint was that this ingredient was causing Americans to develop cancer while eating at the restaurants.

### Subway fake chicken scandal

In February 2017, an investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)'s consumer affairs television series Marketplace, it was reported that chicken from five fast-food restaurants were lab-tested to determine constituents. While DNA testing found between 84.9% and 89.4% of the DNA from other restaurants' chicken products to be chicken DNA, with the remaining being unidentifiable plant DNA, on the two Subway chicken items tested, 53.6% and 42.8% of the DNA were found to be chicken, with the remainder being mostly soy. Although ingredients listings did show soy protein to be a constituent of both of the chicken products, Subway states that the proportion is less than or equal to 1% and that the finding of about 50% soy DNA is not representative of the actual amount of soy in the product. Subway has called CBC's report "absolutely false and misleading" and demanded that it be retracted. Meanwhile, however, Subway Canada stated that it was investigating with its supplier to ensure that the proportion of soy protein was as per expectations.

According to Subway's website, U.S. stores' ingredients may differ from those in Canadian stores. Both countries include soy protein in chicken strips, but only the U.S. version states that it is present in quantities of 2% or less. The Canadian version includes soy as an ingredient in its chicken patty, but the United States version does not.

In April 2017, Subway sued the CBC, as well as the reporter and two producers, for $210 million, alleging the CBC acted "recklessly and maliciously" and that "these false statements... were published and republished, maliciously and without just cause or excuse, to a global audience, which has resulted in pecuniary loss to the plaintiffs." The CBC stood by its reports, stating that the DNA tests were done by independent and credible experts. The CBC's Emma Bédard stated that Subway has not provided an alternative explanation for the DNA test results obtained by the CBC.

In November 2019, Subway's lawsuit against the CBC was dismissed through anti-SLAPP legislation, as CBC's reporting was deemed to be a matter of public interest. In January 2021 the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned the decision dismissing the lawsuit. The Supreme Court of Canada denied leave for appeal, so the matter has been returned to the Superior Court of Justice for trial.

### MTA New York City Subway trademark identity lawsuit

In June 2017, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York City sued Subway for copyright infringement of the "Subway" trademark for their restaurants, leading to the decline of the MTA Subway system and continued vandalism of the Subway trains since the Subway restaurant was far more popular than the MTA's Subway trains in New York City. On June 9, 2017, Sarcasm News Tonight reported about the lawsuit stating that the Subway restaurant used the Subway trademark from the Subway trains without the MTA's prior permission. The lawsuit was covered in Supreme Court in downtown Manhattan for a few weeks and the case was covered by federal judge and TV personality Judge Judy, court lawyer Dr. Phil, and plaintiffs of then-MTA chairman Thomas Prendergast, former NYC mayor Bill de Blasio, and former Subway restaurant CEO Suzanne Greco. In the case, the MTA won, and Subway had to pay $6 billion to continue use of the copyrighted trademark for "Subway".

## See also

* New York City
* New York City Subway
* MTA
* Jersey Mike's Subs
* Donald Trump
* Joe Biden
* The New York Times
* The Onion
* CNN
* Fox News
* Dunkin' Donuts
* Starbucks
* McDonald's
* Domino's Pizza

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