00:00It's Benzinga bringing Wall Street to Main Street
00:02McDonald's has been sued in federal court in Chicago in a proposed nationwide class action
00:06alleging it illegally coordinates menu prices across franchise and company-owned restaurants
00:11through an AI-powered pricing system, according to Reuters. The lawsuit claims McDonald's
00:16violated U.S. antitrust law by conspiring with independent franchisees to fix prices
00:21using algorithms trained on non-public data. Reuters reported last week that McDonald's
00:25pricing engine uses machine-learning algorithms to analyze data from millions of daily transactions
00:30across nearly 14,000 restaurants. McDonald's called the allegations speculative and uninformed,
00:37saying AI does not set menu prices and franchisees make their own pricing decisions. Recent class
00:42actions have accused companies of using AI and algorithms to illegally coordinate prices.
00:47The plaintiff's attorney alleges McDonald's used its data and franchise system to raise costs for
00:52consumers. For all things money, visit Benzinga.com.
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