McDonald’s Class Action Says Extra Value Meals Prices Inflated

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McDonald’s Corporation is facing a class action lawsuit alleging it engages in fraudulent marketing practices by selling some of its Extra Value Meals at inflated prices.

Plaintiff Kelly Killeen says that McDonald’s deceptively markets its Two Cheeseburger Extra Value Meal and Sausage Burrito (2) Extra Value Meal by touting them as a bargain even though the price of the meals is more expensive than purchasing the same items individually off the a la carte menu.

According to the Extra Value Meal class action lawsuit, McDonald’s disseminates false and misleading information through television advertisements, print advertisements, internet postings and in-store advertisements about the Extra Value Meals. Kelly claims that this marketing strategy is intended to “trick unsuspecting consumers” into believing they are receiving a value by purchasing an Extra Value Meal instead of purchasing each item in the Extra Value Meal off the a la carte menu.

Killeen says she purchased the Sausage Burrito (2) Extra Value Meal from a McDonald’s restaurant in Illinois after viewing the advertisements promoting the meal. According to the McDonald’s class action lawsuit, she paid more for the Extra Value Meal than she would have if she had purchased each of the items contained in the meal separately.

The cost of the Sausage Burrito Extra Value Meal was $5.08, but the price of purchasing the two burritos, a hash brown and medium coffee from the a la carte menu would have been $4.97, according to the McDonald’s class action lawsuit.

“[I]n other words, the Meal was not a value,” Killeen says in the McDonald’s class action lawsuit. She says she would not have purchased the Extra Value Meal had she known that the price was inflated. She asserts she would have selected the same items contained in the Extra Value Meal off the a la carte menu instead.

By filing the McDonald’s class action lawsuit, Killeen seeks to represent herself and a Class of consumers who paid an inflated price for food items by purchasing an Extra Value Meal at a McDonald’s restaurant in Illinois.

The McDonald’s class action lawsuit asserts claims for unjust enrichment and violation of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

In addition to McDonald’s Corporation, the Extra Value Meal also names as a defendant Salabad LLC, which operates a specific McDonald’s restaurant in Chicago.

Killeen initially filed her McDonald’s class action lawsuit in December in Illinois state court. Last week, her case was removed to Illinois federal court.

Killeen is not the first consumer to take legal action against McDonald’s for allegedly inflating the prices of its Extra Value Meals. In December, another Illinois plaintiff filed an Extra Value Meal class action lawsuit accusing the fast food chain of overcharging consumers for Extra Value Meals. He claims that McDonald’s purposely advertises the meals as a “value” to entice consumers to pay more for the menu items than they otherwise would have paid.

Killeen is represented by Samuel A. Shelist of Shelist Law Firm LLC.

The McDonald’s Extra Value Meal Class Action Lawsuit is Killeen v. McDonald’s Corporation, et al., Case No. 1:17-cv-00874, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

UPDATE: On April 6, 2018, McDonald’s dodged a class action lawsuit alleging the chain deceived consumers with supposed value meals that cost more than the price of the individual components of the meal.