Jimmy Donaldson, also known as MrBeast, is being sued by Virtual Dining Concepts, the ghost company behind MrBeast Burger.
Variety reported that Virtual Dining Concepts, which handled the fulfilment and delivery of MrBeast Burgers, is seeking $100 million in damages.
VDC filed the lawsuit on Monday morning in the Supreme Court of the State of New York for the County of New York.
“This case is about a social media celebrity who believes his fame means that his word does not matter, that the facts do not matter, and that he can renege and breach his contractual obligations without consequence. He is mistaken,” the suit reads.
This comes after Donaldson sued Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC) and its parent company last month, to terminate the deal for his restaurant chain.
He alleges that the burgers it served were called “disgusting”, “revolting” and “inedible”, and damaged his reputation.
VDC then called the YouTuber’s lawsuit “meritless” and “ill-advised,” claiming that Donaldson had breached his agreement with the virtual restaurant company and recently attempted to negotiate a new deal “to serve his own monetary interests” and “give up more of the brand to him to terminate his “existing contractual obligations without cause”.
The lawsuit contains examples of tweets from Donaldson, some of which have now been deleted from his account, where Donaldson wrote to his millions of fans that he wished to close his burger business and said that “the company I partnered with won’t let me stop even though it’s terrible for my brand”.
The YouTuber wrote, “Young beast signed a bad deal.” In another tweet, he wrote, “If I had the ability to close it, I would have done so a long time ago sadly. Sometimes when ur young you sign shit deal.”
The lawsuit states: “Like any party to a contract, Donaldson must be held to his word, and held accountable for his contractual breaches and other misconduct.”
Donaldson’s baseless and unlawful disparagement had the intended effect: MrBeast Burger’s reputation was materially damaged if not destroyed, customers abandoned the Brand, Plaintiffs’ hard-won relationships with vendors, partners, and suppliers were shattered, causing damages to Plaintiffs that, according to the evidence and Donaldson’s own statements regarding the value of MrBeast Burger, are in the nine-figure range.”
MrBeast Burger operates mostly online through “ghost kitchens”, where food can be ordered via delivery apps but is cooked in other existing restaurant facilities. Since 2020, MrBeast Burger has expanded to 1,700 restaurants.
