McDonald’s Sued For Nearly $1 Billion Because Of Ice Cream
McDonald's is in hot water over its broken ice cream machines, find out why one company is suing.
This article is more than 2 years old
While the world is filled with uncertainty, there’s one thing that’s always consistent. The ice cream machine in your nearest McDonald’s will almost always be out of order. Sharing in everyone’s frustration was a company called Kytch. The little start-up worked to create a device to solve the fast-food giant’s peril. While everyone should be happy that someone found a solution, this story does not have a happy ending.
Kytch co-founders, Melissa Nelson and Jeremy O’Sullivan are suing McDonald’s for $900 million in damages after accusing the food outlet of false advertising. According to Wired, in 2019 Kytch created and sold phone-sized devices to be installed inside the eatery’s ice cream machines. These magical gadgets work by intercepting the machine’s internal communications and sending them to a web or mobile interface. This way franchise owners can remotely monitor and address any problems with their equipment.
Unfortunately, the relationship turned ugly in late 2020 when McDonald’s asked franchises to remove the Kytch devices. The fast-food company claimed that they violated the ice cream machines’ warranties and intercepted confidential information. To make matters worse, McDonald’s also said the gadgets were a safety threat that could result in serious injury to their staff. Moreover, the emails promoted the restaurant’s manufacturing partner, the Taylor Company to create new ice cream machines which offered features similar to Kytch’s device.
Speaking about their decision to pull the component, McDonald’s said there’s no conspiracy behind the move. In a statement, they said nothing is more important to the company than food quality and safety. This is why all equipment is thoroughly vetted before it’s approved for use. “After we learned that Kytch’s unapproved device was being tested by some of our franchisees, we held a call to better understand what it was,” a spokesperson said via PennLive. And they subsequently communicated a potential safety concern to franchisees.
Meanwhile, Kytch denied McDonald’s claim, calling it defamatory. In their legal filing, the start-up says that these safety warnings were inaccurate, aiming to discredit their company and give more business to Taylor Co. “Taylor has intentionally created equipment reliability issues for years. And its repair and maintenance business has earned hundreds of millions of dollars in fees for repairs that Taylor itself caused,” the complaint says.
Interestingly, Kytch has been waging a battle with McDonald’s for a while. In 2021, they filed their first device-related complaint which claimed that Taylor Co made a component that was just like theirs. This got the mini-manufacturer a restraining order against the larger company. But the new complaint goes after McDonald’s directly for allegedly cutting off its customer base. “Kytch was the only product on the market that was positioned to fix the soft-serve machines at McDonald’s,” read the complaint.
Although Kytch’s latest lawsuit doesn’t directly address the “right to repair”, their legal battle with McDonald’s raises some valuable questions. Like should product owners be given a chance to fix their own devices, or should those repairs be handled by the company that purchased them?
