McDonald's is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit filed in a Chicago federal court. The plaintiffs allege that the fast-food chain used an artificial intelligence pricing system to illegally coordinate menu prices across its corporate-owned and franchised locations.
The lawsuit claims that McDonald's conspired with independent franchisees to manipulate prices using algorithms trained on non-public data, which the plaintiffs argue violates US antitrust laws. The complaint references reports that the company's pricing engine uses machine learning to analyze data from millions of daily transactions across nearly 14,000 stores.
McDonald's issued a statement on Monday denying the allegations, calling them speculative and factually baseless. The company asserts that individual franchisees retain full authority over pricing decisions. Furthermore, McDonald's stated that the prices of its menu items, including the Big Mac, are not set by artificial intelligence.
The company added that data analytics and pricing recommendation tools are standard practices across various industries. The plaintiff, an Illinois resident, seeks to represent millions of McDonald's customers in this nationwide class action. Attorney Lark Turner represents the plaintiffs in the case.
