Federal agency investigating why McDonald’s McFlurry machines are always broken

The FTC has questions for Micky Dees.

The Federal Trade Commission recently reached out to McDonald’s restaurant owners to collect more information on their experiences with the McFlurry machines, which are known for constantly breaking down to the dismay of many of the Oak Brook, Ill.-based burger giant’s fans who love its popular frozen soft serve ice cream treat.

The problems with the broken machines have gotten so bad that there is a website dedicated to tracking which stores across all 14,000 locations in the U.S. are affected.

Approximately 11% of McDonald’s ice cream machines are currently out of service, including more than one-quarter in New York, the McBroken website recorded.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the right to repair movement is the reason why the machine is under investigation.

In July, President Biden directed the agency — founded in 1914 to protect consumers by stopping unfair, deceptive or fraudulent practices in the marketplace — to draft new rules to empower consumers and businesses to repair their devices on their own.

The FTC later voted unanimously to tackle unlawful repair restrictions later in the month.

The Taylor Company, the firm that makes the McFlurry machines, is at the center of a legal battle over measures it uses to prevent restaurants from repairing the machines on their own.

When a McFlurry machine goes on the brink, only a certified technician from the Rockton, Illinois-headquartered manufacturer is allowed to fix it, leading to long wait times — which have increased during the pandemic.

A California federal judge sided with Kytch Solution Devices, a company that produces a diagnostic device that threatens Taylor’s monopoly on repairs in August. The tool was designed to collect data and allows franchise operators to make simple repairs, like replacing broken equipment or cleaning the machine, without having to call in a Taylor certified technician.

The FTC noted in letter the Journal obtained that “the existence of a preliminary investigation does not indicate the FTC or its staff have found any wrongdoing,” but still reportedly wants to know how often restaurant owners are allowed to work on the McFlurry machines without Taylor’s involvement.

According to Technomic data, McFlurries account for 60% of McDonald’s dessert sales.

“A lot of what’s been broadcasted can be attributed to the lack of knowledge about the equipment and how they operate in the restaurants,” a Taylor representative said in a media statement, telling the outlet that when working with dairy products machines must be cleaned properly. “The machines are built up with a lot of interconnecting parts that have to operate in a complex environment and manner.”

Persistent issues with the McFlurry – invented in 1997 – have been going on for years; in 2017, McDonald’s announced a new contract with an Italian ice cream machine company, Carpigiani, and from then on offered franchisees a different vendor option.