McDonald's has been hit with a class action in a US federal court in Chicago, accused of using an artificial intelligence-driven pricing system to coordinate menu prices between franchisees and company-owned locations, in what may amount to a violation of US antitrust law. The lawsuit, filed on Friday, alleges that McDonald's worked with independent franchise operators to set prices through algorithms trained on internal data that was not disclosed to the public, and argues that independent operators should set their own prices independently. The case cites an earlier Reuters report stating that McDonald's pricing system uses machine learning algorithms to continuously analyse data from millions of transactions each day at nearly 14,000 restaurants across the United States. McDonald's denied the allegations, calling them speculative and lacking accurate information, and insisted that AI does not set the prices of the Big Mac or other menu items, and that franchisees still decide prices themselves. Lark Turner, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said McDonald's is exploiting vast amounts of data and its franchise system to extract more revenue from consumers. The plaintiffs, who are from Illinois, want the case to represent McDonald's customers across the United States, who could number in the millions.
McDonald’s CorporationMcDonald's faces a US antitrust class action alleging its AI-driven pricing system illegally coordinates menu prices across franchisees and company-owned locations.
