McDonald’s Lawsuit Claims Value Meals Aren’t Really A Value

As its always stood, McDonald’s is meant to be fast and inexpensive. But if things like their Extra Value Meals are actually costing you more money than they should, then that’s a problem.

James Gertie is suing McDonald’s, claiming the Extra Value Meal at his local Chicago McDonald’s costs 41 cents more than it would to buy each item individually, according to Consumerist.

The lawsuit claims that a-la-carte, two burgers cost $2.50, fries cost $1.99, and the drink is usually $1, for a grand total of $5.49. Cool. Except all those items cost $5.90 when packaged in the Value Meal.

You might think 41 cents is not a big deal, but if true, that Extra Value Meal at this McDonald’s was still ripping off customers.

The goal of the lawsuit is to refund customers who have bought the Extra Value Meal, plus punitive damage.

In an attempt to test the price difference claim, Business Insider found a similar result in New York, saying that Postmates has a two cheeseburger Extra Value Meals for $5.99, but buying the items individually came out to $5.86, a difference of 13 cents.

I tried it through Postmates myself, using our local McDonald’s in Santa Ana, California, but I found that you save 17 cents with the Extra Value Meal. It’s not much of an extra value, but at least it’s not a complete hustle.

So this pricing dilemma doesn’t seem to be a company-wide thing. It might just be terrible mathematicians putting together bad deals at certain locations. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all plays out, but if something screwy did occur, I genuinely hope everyone gets back their 41 cents.