McDonald’s is being sued for $900 million by a company that created a product to fix the fast food chain’s infamously broken ice cream machines.
The start-up business, called Kytch, created a device to help troubleshoot the ice cream machines and sold it to 500 of McDonald’s restaurants. But, as reported by WIRED, McDonald’s bosses allegedly ordered these devices removed in November 2020. According to emails referenced in the lawsuit, McDonald’s removed the devices from its machines as they violated their warranties, intercepted “confidential information”, and risked causing “serious human injury”.
Since the removal of the devices, Kytch has seen a drop-off in sales. In response, the small company filed a lawsuit on March 1 that accuses McDonald’s of false advertising and wrongfully interfering with its contracts with customers. The lawsuit also claims that the restaurant chain has defamed the Kytch name.
Cofounder Melissa Nelson told WIRED: “They’ve tarnished our name. They scared off our customers and ruined our business. They were anti-competitive. They lied about a product that they said would be released.
“McDonald’s had every reason to know that Kytch was safe and didn’t have any issues. It was not dangerous, like they claimed. And so we’re suing them.”
Kytch’s phone-sized device would intercept the ice cream machines’ internal communications and report back any issues to a web or smartphone device, which one restaurant owner told WIRED saved “thousands of dollars a month”.
Kytch also claimed that McDonald’s used its device to reverse engineer and developer a new ice cream machine that uses its technology.
McDonald’s told WIRED: “Nothing is more important to us than food quality and safety, which is why all equipment in McDonald’s restaurants 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 and subsequently communicated a potential safety concern to franchisees. There’s no conspiracy here.”
The result of the lawsuit will likely unfold over the next several months and years.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.
