-
A federal class action filed October 2 in Chicago accuses McDonald's of violating U.S. antitrust law by coordinating menu prices across its nearly 14,000 U.S. restaurants through machine-learning algorithms trained on nonpublic sales data.
- A Reuters investigation published September 29 found that Big Mac prices can diverge by as much as 21% between two McDonald's locations just two miles apart, with data consulting firm Tiger Analytics operating the pricing engine behind those figures.
- Five franchise owners told Reuters they experienced pressure to follow the AI-generated pricing guidance, while a June 2026 internal document showed McDonald's formally tracking how much each operator's prices deviate from the system's recommendations — a practice confirmed publicly by CEO Chris Kempczinski.
-
McDonald's denies all allegations, maintaining that franchisees control their own pricing and that AI does not set menu prices at its restaurants.
A federal class action filed Friday, October 2 in Chicago accuses McDonald's of violating U.S. antitrust law by using artificial intelligence to coordinate menu prices across its nearly 14,000 U.S. restaurants — a case brought on behalf of potentially millions of American consumers that could define how courts treat algorithmic pricing for a generation.
