An orthodox Christian woman has sued fast food chain McDonald’s after claiming an advert displaying a cheeseburger and nuggets made her break her fast during Lent.
Ksenia Ovchinnikova said that she could not help herself after seeing the ad while walking in the streets of Omsk in 2019. At the time, she had been fasting for a month.
In orthodox Christian tradition, during the months of Lent believers are expected to refrain from eating meat, meat by-products, poultry, eggs and dairy.
Ovchinnikova argued that she had been able to fast for the last 16 years, but the ad compelled her to break her traditions and eat a cheeseburger.
'By this point, I had already been fasting for a month, but when I saw an advertising banner, I could not help myself, I visited McDonald's and bought a cheeseburger,' Ksenia Ovchinnikova wrote in a statement.
According to The Daily Mail, the woman is requesting 1,000 rubles (£9) in sustained moral damages as she believes McDonald’s broke consumer law and insulted her religious feelings.
“In the actions of McDonald’s, I see a violation of the consumer protection law. I ask the court to investigate and, if a violation has taken place, to oblige McDonald’s LLC to compensate me for moral damage in the amount of one thousand rubles,” Ovchinnikova continued.
No date has been confirmed for the preliminary hearing.