The Seattle Times reports here on a Starbucks email promotion that went awry:

Last month, Starbucks e-mailed a coupon for a free iced beverage to some employees and encouraged them to forward it to friends and family. Starbucks stopped honoring the coupon last week, a month short of its Sept. 30 expiration date, saying it had been "redistributed beyond the original intent."

Now the company faces a $114 million (!) dollar lawsuit.  I'm not sure what to say, other than "sender beware!"  Seriously, unless there's some special rule that I'm not aware of, the lawsuit sounds flimsy.  I'm a little rusty, but most law students can attest to the requirement of consideration in these types of situations.  You have to choose to go through a bunch of trouble in reliance on a one-sided promise before you can sue on the one-sided promise.  Trekking down to the local Starbucks and getting in line for a latte doesn't sounds like it would qualify. 

On the other hand the initial explanation offered by Starbucks is fairly unsophisticated: 

the coupon had to be recalled because it was "redistributed beyond the original intent and modified beyond Starbucks control." 

Yeah, right.  Welcome to the internet age.  (See here, here, here, and here.) 

[See also an OC Register article here.]