McDonald’s Broken Ice Cream Machine Lawsuit Investigation

In 2019, an entrepreneurial couple launched a third-party device, Kytch, that could bypass Taylor ice cream machines’ impenetrable code, give specific details about what was going wrong and save McDonald’s franchisees thousands in repair costs every week. But in 2020, McDonald’s abruptly issued a stern warning to all franchisees, saying any use of Kytch would void their Taylor machine warranties. They also announced the release of another machine interface device, described by eatthis.com as “similar in concept to Kytch,” but manufactured by Taylor itself.

Kytch recently filed suit against Taylor accusing it of illegally stealing Kytch’s proprietary secrets to preserve its “effective monopoly” and “repair racket.” While Kytch’s lawsuit proceeds in court, McDonald’s operators continue paying millions to ice cream machine giant Taylor.

Thanks for a binding contract, McDonald’s franchisees are locked into expensive ice cream machine repair agreements with technicians from Taylor. If franchise owners try to shop around for repairs, McDonald’s reportedly threatens to cancel their lease agreement and end their business.

Though Taylor supplies soft serve machines to many fast food restaurants like Burger King and Wendy’s, Wired reports McDonald’s uses the “most complex” and “most often borked” Taylor machines. According to brobible.com, a whopping 25% of Taylor’s annualized income comes from fixing McDonald’s machines alone.