McDonald's AI pricing sued: Consumers allege algorithm helped franchisees 'collude on prices'

动察 Beating AI News: McDonald's AI pricing system is already facing an antitrust lawsuit. Illinois customer Michael Thomas has sued McDonald's in federal court in Chicago and is seeking to represent potentially millions of consumers across the United States in a class action. The complaint alleges that McDonald's used AI to coordinate menu prices between franchised and company-owned stores, in violation of U.S. antitrust law.

The complaint states that McDonald's centralized non-public transaction data from various stores into the same machine learning "pricing engine," and then provided price recommendations to each store. The plaintiff argues that franchisees are independent businesses competing with one another and should set their own prices. Aggregating competitors' data and then having the same system provide recommendations may reduce the price competition that would otherwise exist among stores. The complaint also directly cites Reuters' previous investigation into this system.

McDonald's denies the allegations, calling the claims "speculative and uninformed about the facts." The company emphasized that AI does not directly determine how much a Big Mac or other menu items sell for, and that franchisees still decide the final prices themselves. McDonald's also previously published a special article stating that price recommendations are only for reference and that franchisees may choose not to adopt them.