Americans may be able to put rovers on Mars and build tech the envy of the Free World, however, when it comes to getting the ice-cream machine to work at the local McDonald’s apparently they’re at a huge loss.
As anyone who’s ever been to the States (or even hasn’t) would know, the running joke at any McDonald’s outlet is that the ice-cream machine is always out of order.
Now the creators of a gadget that helped fix McDonald’s chronically broken-down ice cream machines in America is set to sue the burger giant for “dereliction of duty” and, in the process, are asking for a cool $US900 million in damages.
The company, called Kytch, created a mini device that can be planted inside Macca’s’ failing dessert machines that make McFlurry’s, milkshakes and ice cream cones.
It works by intercepting the machine’s internal communications and sending information to a smartphone or web interface where McDonald’s’ franchisees can troubleshoot the problem when the machine breaks down.
Kytch’s co-founders, Melissa Nelson and Jeremy O’Sullivan, are now seeking $US900 million in damages, accusing the burger giant of, among other things, defamation, false advertising and tortious interference in its contracts with customers.
Court documents filed in the US District Court in Delaware showed that Kytch had become popular among franchisees in the United States.
Nelson and O’Sullivan’s legal team even included a tweet by McDonald’s that showed the company was well aware of the problem with its ice-cream machines.
According to a site called McBroken, a website tracking the chain’s broken ice cream machines, 13 per cent of machines are currently out of use at any one time, with almost 37 per cent not working in New York.
The plaintiffs allege, “McDonald’s has failed to meaningfully improve the machines, and the fast-food giant has even granted Taylor exclusive rights to supply kitchen appliances to more than 13,000 retail locations in the United States.”
It added: “This arrangement generates millions of dollars of revenue for Taylor and its network of franchised distributors.”
O’Sullivan told Newsweek: “If their mission was to destroy Kytch, they absolutely succeeded. What has blown up in their face is this massive trail of really damning evidence of all the laws they’ve broken.”
He added that it took him and Nelson months, “if not a full year,” to gather all the evidence and data, and “convince very smart attorneys to take this data and litigate it against probably the most fearsome company to sue, which is McDonald’s.”
In September last year, reports in the media even suggested that America’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had launched an investigation into the failing machines.
At the time, the Wall Street Journal said that the FTC has sent the franchise owners of McDonald’s a letter requesting more information about issues with the ice cream machinery.
A report at the time noted that the machines are “difficult to repair and require a nightly automated heat-cleaning cycle that can fail, requiring technicians to make the machines work again.”
However, a statement from McDonald’s USA denied the rumours of an FTC investigation, saying there is “no reason to believe we are the focus of an FTC investigation.” It added, “Nothing is more important to us than delivering on our high standards for food quality and safety, which is why we work with fully vetted partners that can reliably provide safe solutions at scale.”
