Step #1
If you become poisoned after visiting a catering facility, be sure to seek medical help. It is better to call an ambulance or a doctor at home. Tell the doctor what you ate at the restaurant. After a medical examination, if signs of poisoning are established, ask your doctor to make an extract from your medical history, in which he will outline the possible causes of poisoning and a detailed description of your health condition. If you are forced to purchase medications for treatment or incur other costs associated with treatment, keep receipts confirming your expenses.
Step #2
After receiving the doctor's conclusion, submit a written complaint to the owner of the cafe. If food poisoning occurred on board an airplane or in a train dining car, file a claim with the carrier. In your claim, be sure to indicate the fact of harm and the amount of monetary compensation you would like to receive. It includes the costs you actually incurred: the cost of lunch, the cost of medications and other treatment expenses, as well as the amount of moral damages.
Attach to your claim a copy of the medical report and the receipt (invoice), as well as the ticket (if the poisoning occurred after eating in a restaurant car or on an airplane).
After visiting any public catering establishment, keep your receipt for at least a few days. If the account has not been saved, then confirmation can be a bank statement on transactions on the account (if you paid with a bank card), as well as testimony of witnesses. At the same time, even if it was not you, but your friend who paid for lunch in a cafe, remember that, according to the law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights”, the right to demand compensation for damage caused due to defects in the product is recognized for any victim.
If a catering establishment refuses to admit the fact of poisoning
If your complaint is ignored or is not satisfied, file a complaint with the territorial division of Rospotrebnadzor. The complaint must indicate the fact of the event (poisoning), your (and the restaurant’s) contacts. Attach a copy of the medical report and a copy of the receipt.
Rospotrebnadzor is obliged to conduct an inspection of the cafe and notify you of its results. If sanitary norms and rules are violated in a cafe, then your complaint and the subsequent inspection may preserve the health of other citizens. In addition, the results of the audit may serve as additional evidence of the contractor’s guilt.
We compensate for the damage caused through court
Under the Consumer Protection Act, you have the right to compensation for the harm caused to you. We go to court to protect our rights.
The statement of claim must indicate:
When and under what circumstances did you get poisoned?
Witnesses (if any) who can confirm that you actually took food in this establishment;
The results of the inspection by Rospotrebnadzor and the violations identified (if such an inspection was carried out);
The amount of material damage caused to you: this amount includes the cost of a poor-quality lunch that you paid to the defendant, the cost of treatment expenses and the amount of lost earnings during treatment (if for some reason your employer did not pay you sick leave);
The amount of moral damage that in your opinion the defendant should pay you; The amount of compensation for moral damage is determined by the court and does not depend on the amount of compensation for property damage.
The following documents must be attached to the statement of claim:
A medical report confirming the fact of food poisoning;
A check from a restaurant or other document confirming payment for the service or a bank statement confirming the transfer of funds to the defendant;
Receipts and other documents confirming treatment expenses;
A certificate from the employer about the amount of lost earnings for sick days (if sick leave was not paid);
Conclusion of Rospotrebnadzor on the results of the inspection (if one was carried out).
Hello. I usually carried food with me to work, but the other day I decided to have lunch with my colleagues in a cafe near work. Result: severe poisoning. I'm wondering if this establishment can be punished somehow? Demand compensation from them for the damage caused?
Maria, Krasnodar
What the law says
Current legislative acts clearly regulate the work of public catering. Modern current legislative norms and rules provide for compensation for damage caused to the health of visitors due to non-compliance with certain legislative acts. Thus, by proving that the poisoning was received in this particular catering establishment, and not at home or at a party, you can receive compensation for the harm caused. Moreover, the organization, that is, the food outlet, will pay the cost of prescribed and purchased medications and will reimburse lost profits. The concept of lost income refers to the amount of money that you should have earned if you were healthy.
To launch the mechanism described above and receive compensation, it is necessary to submit an appropriate application demanding compensation for damage caused to the judicial authorities, that is, to the court. This right is assigned to every citizen of our country, on the basis of the Federal Law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights”.
However, one statement will not help achieve the desired result. If the cause of poisoning was food prepared in a restaurant, cafe or bar, this must be proven through medical examinations and doctor’s reports. It is a medical certificate that can confirm the fact of food poisoning. In addition, the doctor who will conduct the analysis and examination will need to indicate that the most likely cause of poisoning is lunch or dinner in a particular place.
After the document is received, the process of “punishing” the careless cooks and the organization in which they work begins. First, an out-of-court procedure is carried out. First of all, the administration is notified of the fact of poisoning after eating food in their establishment. There are several ways to notify the administration. You can write a complaint in the complaint book, but there is no guarantee that it will be read in a timely manner. An alternative option is to file a claim addressed to the director. If you already have medical evidence in your hands, be sure to indicate this in the text of the claim. Most often, restaurants, cafes, bars, canteens, and so on, prefer not to bring the case to the second stage (trial proceedings) and pay compensation out of court.
If your request is not responded to properly, feel free to go to court and defend your rights directly with the judicial authorities. When applying to the court, an application is submitted, and a receipt from a restaurant, bar or cafe, receipts for purchased medicines and procedures performed, and medical certificates are attached to it.
Remember
- If you had dinner somewhere outside the home and felt unwell, symptoms of poisoning are already late in the evening or at night, when clinics are not open, feel free to call an ambulance. It is necessary to promptly establish the fact of food poisoning.
- Before going to court, you have every civil right to file a complaint against the institution with Rospotrebnadzor. In the text of the complaint, you must include your contact information, as well as information about the restaurant where you were poisoned: address, name, opening hours. The complaint you have filed is the basis for the authorities to inspect this institution. An unscheduled inspection by Rospotrebnadzor is a nightmare for any owner of a food establishment. Therefore, you can even inform the institution in advance that you plan to file a complaint.
- Also remember that more than 85% of these types of claims are successful in court. Don't be afraid to defend your rights!
Some catering establishments do not monitor cleanliness, hire cooks without sanitary certificates, and purchase low-quality products. Moreover, you can feel unwell both after lunch at an expensive restaurant and after a snack at the food court.
The consumer has the right to ensure that the service is safe for life and health.
Article 7 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”
Compensation for harm to health due to “deficiencies in the service” is guaranteed by Article 1095 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
Step 1: See your doctor
Don't try to cope on your own. Call an ambulance or doctor to your home. If your condition allows, go to the clinic. Tell the doctors what you ate and when you felt unwell. All this needs to be documented.
The medical report will become your main evidence in the future. It would be good if it traced a cause-and-effect relationship between the fact of visiting a cafe and poisoning. For example, ask the doctor to write that the departure did not occur after visiting the establishment, but “in connection” with it.
In case of poisoning in public catering, the presumption of guilt of the defendant, provided for in Article 1064 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, does not apply. You can’t just blame the cafe for your malaise. There must be evidence that the cause of your nausea is the same salmon tartare that you ate yesterday at the Romashka cafe, and not the belyash that you bought from the metro. Therefore, you cannot do without visiting a doctor and such unpleasant procedures as gastroscopy.
Alexander Gulko, "Gulko's Judicial Bureau"
Here's what else can be your evidence.
- Check and invoice. Store them for at least a couple of days after visiting the establishment, because poisoning may not appear immediately. If the check was thrown away, but you paid by card, a bank statement will do.
- Testimony of witnesses. Enlist the help of those who will confirm that you dined on a specific day at a specific establishment. Read reviews about it on social networks and on independent recommendation sites like TripAdvisor. You may not be the only one affected, and you can complain collectively.
Step 2. Write a complaint
- when you visited the establishment;
- what did you order;
- what health problems did you get;
- amount of monetary compensation.
Attach a copy of the medical report and receipt (if available) and send the claim by registered mail with notification to the company's legal address. Or hand it over in person, but make sure that a restaurant representative puts a date and signature on your copy.
Determine the amount of compensation based on the bill for lunch, money spent on treatment, and other expenses.
If you had to take sick leave, then, according to Article 1085 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, you can demand compensation for lost earnings due to illness. That is, in addition to treatment costs, the restaurant will have to compensate you for the difference between what you received on sick leave and what you would have earned if you were present at work.
Alexander Gulko
According to Article 31 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”, a response to your complaint must be received within 10 days. An establishment that values its reputation will try to smooth out the negative and satisfy the client’s requirements.
Step 3. Complain to Rospotrebnadzor
Rospotrebnadzor is the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare. Monitoring compliance with sanitary standards in public catering establishments is her direct responsibility.
You can contact the territorial body of Rospotrebnadzor in person or online. This can be done at any stage: both when filing a claim and when going to court.
Based on your complaint, Rospotrebnadzor will conduct an unscheduled inspection of the restaurant. Violations discovered during the investigation can be used in court as evidence.
Step 4: File a lawsuit
In the statement of claim, please indicate:
- when and under what circumstances did you get poisoned;
- what harm was caused to health;
- what evidence and witnesses do you have;
- what are your requirements.
Attach all the documents you have: a medical report, sick leave, a check from a restaurant, a conclusion from Rospotrebnadzor, correspondence with the defendant, and so on.
If the collected evidence establishes a cause-and-effect relationship between food consumption in the cafe and poisoning, the claim will be satisfied. But if the evidence does not provide a complete picture of what happened, and the medical examinations carried out do not answer the question of what kind of food caused harm to health, the chances are low.
Alexander Gulko
Claims for the protection of consumer rights are considered by district courts and can be brought at the location (registration) of the defendant, at your place of residence or at the place of harm, that is, the address of the restaurant. There is no state fee for such cases.
In a statement of claim, you can demand compensation not only for damage to health, but also. After all, if you got to the court, then the restaurant probably got on your nerves.
