Black former franchisees file racial discrimination suit against McDonald’s
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Black former franchisees of McDonald’s USA LLC have filed a race discrimination suit against the fast-food operator, charging they were steered by the company to open poorly performing restaurants in high-crime areas with low-volume cash sales and high operating costs.
Chicago-based McDonald’s has denied the charges.
The plaintiffs “bought into McDonald’s public commitment to the Black community” only to be “misled and denied equal opportunity to economic success by McDonald’s systematic and covert racial discrimination,” according to the lawsuit, Christine Crawford et al. v. McDonald’s USA, LLC, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago Monday.
The lawsuit charges the company excluded plaintiffs from purchasing restaurants in the open market because of their race and provided them with misleading financial information to induce them to purchase McDonald’s least desirable franchises, among other charges.
According to the statistical information included in the complaint, the plaintiffs’ average sales of $2 million compared with McDonald’s national average of $2.7 million between 2011 and 2016, and $2.9 million in 2019.
The suit says the historic high of about 400 Black McDonald’s franchisees in 1998 has declined to fewer than 200 today, while during the same period, the total number of McDonald’s franchised restaurants has more than doubled.
McDonald’s said in a statement, “These allegations fly in the face of everything we stand for as an organization and as a partner to communities and small-business owners around the world.
“Not only do we categorically deny the allegations that these franchisees were unable to succeed because of any form of discrimination by McDonald’s, we are confident that the facts will show how committed we are to the diversity and equal opportunity of the McDonald’s System, including across our franchisees, suppliers and employees.”
