A man who went on vacation at Walt Disney World is currently fighting to push a wrongful death lawsuit through the courts because of arbitration clauses packed into Disney Plus and the company website, which he used to purchase tickets. When Jeffrey Piccolo signed up for a free trial of the subscription service in 2019, he likely didn't pay much attention to the terms of service, which is common.

In 2023, he went on a typical Disney vacation with his wife, Kanokporn Tangsuan. They dined at the Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant. The pair stressed multiple times that Tangsuan had severe food allergies and were assured by staff that her food had been prepared as requested, but a few hours later, she began to suffer from anaphylactic shock, and passed away. Piccolo tried to bring a lawsuit to Disney for wrongful death, as per Florida law, but the company blocked it on three separate grounds.

The first and second were clauses in the terms of both Disney Plus, which Piccolo signed up for a trial of back in 2019, and the Disney website where he purchased tickets to Epcot. These binding arbitration clauses are commonly overlooked items in the Terms of Service for various software and services, a point that's caused controversy in the past. In a court filing related to the case, Piccolo's lawyer expressed shock at the notion that signing up for a streaming service could waive any right to sue the parent company in the future.

The clause, in both cases, does not expressly include an end date or statute of limitations, aside from a few scenarios that would render the clause void. Wrongful death is not one of them. What's covered under the terms is also relatively nebulous, sometimes referenced as anything related to the service, and sometimes referred to as any dispute between a user and the company at all.

The third reason was that the restaurant is not explicitly owned or operated by Disney themselves. The restaurant is featured heavily on a promotional website owned by Disney, is located in Disney Springs, and accepts dining deals that are sold in vacation packages alongside Disney tickets. These three facts leave the legality of the company's third claim up in the air.