McDonald's is facing a proposed nationwide class-action lawsuit accusing the fast-food giant of using an artificial intelligence-powered pricing system to coordinate menu prices across thousands of independently operated restaurants.
The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in a U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleges McDonald's violated federal antitrust law by conspiring with independent franchisees to fix prices using machine-learning algorithms trained on nonpublic restaurant data. Illinois customer Michael Thomas is seeking to represent potentially millions of McDonald's customers nationwide.
