McDonald's Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over AI Pricing

McDonald's faces a proposed nationwide class action lawsuit filed in a Chicago federal court alleging the company used an AI-powered pricing system to illegally coordinate menu prices. The lawsuit claims the corporation violated U.S. antitrust laws by employing machine-learning algorithms trained on nonpublic data to fix prices across company-owned restaurants and independent franchises.

The legal action follows reports that the company's pricing engine analyzes millions of daily transactions across nearly 14,000 locations. The plaintiff, an Illinois resident represented by lawyer Lark Turner, seeks to represent millions of customers, alleging the company uses its data to overcharge consumers.

McDonald's has denied the allegations, describing them as speculative and uninformed. The company asserts that franchisees make their own pricing decisions and that AI does not set the prices of its menu items.