According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the Federal Trade Commission is now investigating McDonalds over a widespread issue: broken ice cream machines.
As NPR so eloquently put it: “I scream. You scream. We all scream … out of sheer rage that the McDonald’s ice-cream machine is busted again.”
It has become a meme at this point that McDonald’s ice cream machines are almost always broken. The problem is so widespread that an online tool was created to allow people to track malfunctioning machines across the U.S.
The company has acknowledged the issue, but nothing ever seems to get done. So, the feds have taken up the cause.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Federal Trade Commission was in contact with McDonalds franchise owners over the summer. The feds were reportedly looking for information about the broken ice-cream machines.
The Journal reported that McDonalds franchisees have been complaining about the machines for a long time, as they require a nightly cleaning cycle that often fails and requires a technician to fix.
Apparently, the federal government has begun to look into the widespread problem of whether manufacturers have been blocking owners from repairing broken products themselves. Advocates of the “right to repair” movement have said that these companies need to stop making it virtually impossible for users and independent technicians to repair products.
The Federal Trade Commission has declined to comment regarding the report, though the agency announced in July that it would be increasing law enforcement efforts against manufacturers who impose repair restrictions on workers, consumers, businesses, and government agencies.
McDonalds released a statement regarding the news, claiming that the company has no reason to believe that it is the focus of an investigation by the FTC.
“Nothing is more important to us than delivering on our high standards for food quality and safety, which is why we work with fully vetted partners that can reliably provide safe solutions at scale,” the statement said.
Apparently, the company doesn’t take the problem too seriously, as just a year ago McDonalds made a joke about their broken ice cream machines on Twitter.
we have a joke about our soft serve machine but we're worried it won't work
— McDonald's (@McDonalds) August 11, 2020