Description: A U.S. consumer lawsuit alleged that fast-food chain McDonald's used an AI pricing engine trained on pooled confidential restaurant sales data to coordinate menu prices and make customers overpay. Franchisees allegedly faced pressure to follow its recommendations. McDonald's disputed the claims, saying franchisees independently set prices and the tool only provides recommendations.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: McDonald's , Tiger Analytics , Algorithmic pricing system developers and Deloitte developed an AI system deployed by McDonald's , McDonald's franchisees and Restaurants, which harmed McDonald's customers , Consumers and Michael Thomas.
Alleged implicated AI systems: McDonald's pricing engine , AI pricing optimization systems , Algorithmic pricing systems and Enterprise AI systems
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1729
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2026-10-02
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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McDonald's post-incident response
There's been inaccurate reporting about how menu prices are set at McDonald's. So let's set the record straight.
AI does not set the price of a Big Mac or any other menu item. It does not change prices. And it does not determine what an ind…
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Derek Y. Brandt, Larkin Turner post-incident response
AIID editor’s note: This complaint has been abridged to fit AIID’s 50,000-character limit. The table of contents, “Jurisdiction and Venue” section (paragraphs 20–24), and class-certification discussion (paragraphs 90–95) have been omitted. …
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WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuters) - McDonald's (MCD.N), opens new tab has been sued in federal court in Chicago in a proposed nationwide class action alleging the fast-food company illegally coordinates menu prices across its franchises and com…
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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