$10 billion discrimination lawsuit against McDonald’s

A California judge on Tuesday ruled that the fast-food chain did not adequately advertise against black-owned chains and could take further action against media giant McDonald’s, seeking $10 billion in damages.

The first complaint, filed in May 2021, was dismissed a few months later by the same magistrate on grounds of insufficient evidence.

But a judge accepted an amended version of the lawsuit in January and denied McDonald’s motion on Tuesday to dismiss it.

Byron Allen, an African-American, has accused the fast-food giant of refusing to air promotional messages on channels he owns through his Entertainment Studios Networks and Weather Group companies since he became owner.

The founder also accused McDonald’s of setting up a system of advertising spending on white-owned channels on the one hand and advertising spending on channels aimed at the African-American community on the other. They said that they pay less for advertisements there.

“We believe the evidence shows that there was no discrimination and that Entertainment Studios’ allegations are unfounded,” McDonald’s lawyer Loretta Lynch said in a message to AFP.

“Their complaint is about revenue, not racial issues, and the plaintiffs’ baseless allegations ignore McDonald’s legitimate business reasons. McDonald’s is owned by different owners with their chains and many other partners (media, editor’s note),” she adds.

According to Byron, McDonald’s spent about $1.6 billion on TV advertising in the United States in 2019, but only 0.31% of that went to African-American-controlled media, a community that makes up 40% of the restaurant-fast customers. the country