Burger King offers free Whoppers in wake of Wendy’s ‘dynamic pricing’ backlash

Burger King is doling out free burgers — with a side of sass.

On Feb. 28, the fast-food chain announced a deal in response to recent headlines surrounding one of its biggest competitors: Wendy’s.

“the only thing surging at BK is the 🔥,” Burger King wrote on X. “We don’t believe in charging people more when they’re hungry.”

The chain is offering a free Whopper or Impossible Whopper with any $3+ purchase in the BK App through Friday, March 1 at participating U.S. restaurants.

Burger King’s post refers to comments Wendy’s CEO and president Kirk Tanner made on a call with analysts earlier this month about how the company would be rolling out new plans to improve company profits, including digital menu boards that make it easy to change prices.

“Beginning as early as 2025, we will begin testing more enhanced features like dynamic pricing and daypart offerings along with AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling,” Tanner said, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.

This led to several news outlets — including TODAY.com — reporting on the uproar that resulted, with many folks lambasting the news on several social media platforms.

The move was initially compared to the concept of “surge pricing” on the Uber app, but Wendy’s later clarified how it plans to use dynamic pricing.

“To clarify, Wendy’s will not implement surge pricing, which is the practice of raising prices when demand is highest. We didn’t use that phrase, nor do we plan to implement that practice,” a spokesperson said in an email to NBC News. They added there are “no plans” to raise prices at high-demand times.

While a Wendy’s spokesperson had initially confirmed the digital menus and dynamic pricing in a Feb. 26 statement to TODAY.com, they did not say the chain would only lower prices with the new model.

“We said these (digital) menu boards would give us more flexibility to change the display of featured items. This was misconstrued in some media reports as an intent to raise prices when demand is highest at our restaurants. We have no plans to do that and would not raise prices when our customers are visiting us most,” the statement continues. “Any features we may test in the future would be designed to benefit our customers and restaurant crew members. Digital menu boards could allow us to change the menu offerings at different times of day and offer discounts and value offers to our customers more easily, particularly in the slower times of day.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com