Global site navigation

Local editions

Ad discrimination suit against McDonald's allowed to proceed
Business and Economy

Ad discrimination suit against McDonald's allowed to proceed

by  AFP 2 min read
McDonald's maintains that the ad discrimination suit against it is 'about revenue, not race'
McDonald's maintains that the ad discrimination suit against it is 'about revenue, not race'. Photo: JUSTIN SULLIVAN / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/Getty Images via AFP/File
Source: AFP

PAY ATTENTION: Click “See First” under the “Following” tab to see Legit.ng News on your Facebook News Feed!

A federal judge has allowed a discrimination lawsuit to proceed that argues that McDonald's refuses to advertise on Black-owned media networks.

Media entrepreneur Byron Allen, who is Black, has accused McDonald's of instituting a "racially discriminatory contracting process" in a lawsuit first filed in May 2021.

As the owner of Entertainment Studios Networks and the Weather Group, which includes the Weather Channel, he sought $10 billion in damages alleging that McDonald's established "a two-tiered, race based system and shut plaintiff out of the general market (i.e. white-owned media) tier."

However, a federal judge dismissed the suit in December, saying that the allegations were not sufficiently supported.

Following a legal back-and-forth, the same judge on Friday denied a request by McDonald's to dismiss the case, thereby allowing it to proceed.

Read also

US judge tosses murder conviction of man featured on 'Serial' podcast

Allen alleged that were his company white-owned it "would have received tens of millions of dollars in advertising revenue from McDonald's on an annual basis."

PAY ATTENTION: Share your outstanding story with our editors! Please reach us through info@corp.legit.ng!

He also alleged that McDonald's contracts with a separate advertising agency for "African-American media" with an aim of spending a budget that "is de minimis compared to the general market budget."

Allen argues his company had programming geared towards a variety of viewers, especially after its 2018 purchase of the Weather Channel, and that McDonald's has advertised on "similarly situated, white-owned networks."

Loretta Lynch, the former US attorney general who is now a partner at law firm Paul, Weiss representing McDonald's, said Allen's complaint was "about revenue, not race."

The "plaintiffs' groundless allegations ignore both McDonald's legitimate business reasons for not investing more on their channels and the company's long-standing business relationships with many other diverse-owned partners," she said.

Source: AFP

Authors:
AFP avatar

AFP AFP text, photo, graphic, audio or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP news material may not be stored in whole or in part in a computer or otherwise except for personal and non-commercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP news material or in transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages whatsoever. As a newswire service, AFP does not obtain releases from subjects, individuals, groups or entities contained in its photographs, videos, graphics or quoted in its texts. Further, no clearance is obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP material. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP material.

Hot: