{"id":710424,"date":"2021-09-02T14:51:05","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T18:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=710424"},"modified":"2021-09-02T14:51:07","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T18:51:07","slug":"federal-government-looking-into-mcdonalds-ice-cream-machines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-government-looking-into-mcdonalds-ice-cream-machines\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Government Looking Into McDonald\u2019s Ice Cream Machines"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffederal-government-looking-into-mcdonalds-ice-cream-machines%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=710424&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-1334907180.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Broken ice cream machines at McDonald\u2019s have been the butt of jokes and points of criticism from customers and competitors. Now, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into issue.<\/p>\n<p>The Wall Street Journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/mcdonalds-mcflurry-machine-is-broken-again-now-the-ftc-is-on-it-11630522266?mod=hp_featst_pos4\">reported<\/a> on Wednesday that the FTC this summer sought information from McDonald\u2019s relating to the constantly broken ice cream machines from location to location. Those machines account for nearly 60% of U.S. dessert sales at McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOwners of McDonald\u2019s outlets have long complained the devices are overly complicated and their breakdowns hard to fix. The machines require a nightly automated heat-cleaning cycle that can last up to four hours to destroy bacteria. The cleaning cycle can fail, making the machines unusable until a repair technician can get them going again, owners say,\u201d the Journal reported.<\/p>\n<p>The Journal noted, however, that the FTC is merely inquiring about the machines, and that \u201cthe existence of a preliminary investigation does not indicate the FTC or its staff have found any wrongdoing,\u201d according to a letter from the agency obtained by the outlet.<\/p>\n<p>The FTC inquiry is one of many started by the Biden administration that aims to look at whether people are able to fix products they purchase or if they are impeded by manufacturers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe FTC wants to know how McDonald\u2019s reviews suppliers and equipment, including the ice cream machines, and how often restaurant owners are allowed to work on their own machines, according to a person familiar with FTC conversations with franchisees,\u201d the Journal reported.<\/p>\n<p>The question comes after McDonald\u2019s franchise owners have struggled to keep their machines working. Some owners have had their staff trained to fix the machines themselves.<\/p>\n<p>The machines are made by Taylor Commercial Foodservice LLC and must be repaired by them or an authorized repair company. In 2019, Kytch Inc. created a device that would alert McDonald\u2019s employees if the machine was broken. The device could be mounted on the ice cream machine and displayed warnings in plain English. The Taylor machines, by contrast, displayed confusing error codes that needed to be looked up in the manual.<\/p>\n<p>The Kytch devices were used in McDonald\u2019s locations in 30 states, but the company eventually warned owners that the devices were unauthorized and even created a safety hazard, though Kytch denies that.<\/p>\n<p>Kytch went on to sue Taylor, a repair company, and one McDonald\u2019s franchise of trying to develop its own device based on Kytch\u2019s technology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a case about corporate espionage and the extreme steps one manufacturer has taken to conceal and protect a multimillion-dollar repair racket,\u201d Kytch\u2019s attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor denied the allegations and claimed in a court filing: \u201cThis is a case of a hacker\u2014Kytch\u2014incredibly accusing the hacked\u2014Taylor\u2014of theft.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now the FTC is looking into whether Taylor makes it difficult for McDonald\u2019s owners to fix their own machines. McDonald\u2019s is not the only company whose machines are being evaluated. The Biden administration is also looking into other devices, including cell phones, tractors, and others, to see if manufacturers impeded an owner\u2019s ability to fix the machine themselves.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Broken ice cream machines at McDonald\u2019s have been the butt of jokes and points of criticism from customers and competitors. Now, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into issue.The &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-710424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}