Image by Адель Шарипова from Pixabay

Senators raise concerns that McDonald’s is pressuring franchisees to follow AI-driven pricing recommendations that could undermine competition and drive up prices amid food affordability crisis.

Text of Letter (PDF)

November 4, 2026 - Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Becca Balint (D-Vt.) have demanded answers from McDonald’s President and CEO Chris Kempczinski about how the company generates AI-driven pricing recommendations, whether McDonald’s pressures franchisees to follow them, and how the company assesses the technology’s potential harm to consumers and competition. The letter came after reports that the company is using artificial intelligence (AI) to determine the “optimal price” for individual menu items at each of its locations and pushing franchisees to adopt these AI-based prices. 

“We are concerned that McDonald’s may be using AI to squeeze consumers into paying higher prices, and that its AI pricing tools may facilitate collusion between franchisees who should be operating as competitors,” wrote the lawmakers. 

U.S. Representatives Greg Casar (D-Texas), Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.), and Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) also signed the letter.

According to recent reports, McDonald’s has developed an AI-based pricing tool that it may be using to recommend specific prices for each individual store, building off the massive trove of consumer data that Amazon has collected through its loyalty program and mobile app. For example, two McDonald’s-operated restaurants just two miles apart in Fresno, California reportedly charged prices that differed by as much as 21 percent for the same menu items. The lawmakers raised particular concerns about McDonald’s use of AI-based pricing at a time when food prices are rising nationwide and particularly at McDonald’s. One report found that certain McDonald’s menu prices doubled between 2014 and 2024, rising more than three times as fast as overall inflation and driving away customers who previously relied on McDonald’s for an affordable meal.

“We are concerned that McDonald’s is using its extensive consumer data and algorithmic pricing tools to unfairly raise prices on consumers who are already struggling with high food and dining costs,” wrote the lawmakers.

The lawmakers also questioned McDonald’s for reportedly putting pressure on franchisees to adopt its pricing recommendations, including through new business standards and potential consequences for franchise renewals. They warned that encouraging competing franchisees to rely on a shared pricing tool informed by nonpublic data could undermine independent pricing decisions and raise antitrust concerns.

“While McDonald’s asserts that using data and analytics to inform pricing is a standard business practice, pressuring competing franchisees to use a shared AI pricing tool built on nonpublic data is not a standard business practice, but rather a potential antitrust issue,” continued the lawmakers.

The lawmakers requested answers by November 16, 2026, on the data and algorithms used to generate pricing recommendations, the extent to which franchisees adopt those recommendations, the pressure McDonald’s places on franchisees to comply, and the company’s assessment of potential antitrust risks.

Senator Warren has long fought consolidation, collusion, and price gouging in the food industry and across the economy, and worked to lower costs for American families:

• On October 5, 2026, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) warned that giant food and grocery mergers may increase costs, harming American families, restaurants, and small businesses.
• On April 14, 2026, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Minority Leader Schumer (D-N.Y.) led a group of colleagues in calling on the Trump administration to address anticompetitive practices in the food industry like surveillance pricing. 
• On March 24, 2026, Senator Warren (D-Mass.), along with four colleagues, called on the FTC to crack down on war-related price gouging. 
• On March 12, 2026, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Amazon on the company’s use of opaque algorithms to overcharge schools, local governments, and taxpayers for essential goods. 
• On February 4, 2026, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Google with concerns that the company’s integration of AI into its shopping services could be used to set personalized prices and manipulate consumers into spending more. 
• In July 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.), Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), and Representative Chris DeLuzio (D-Pa.) reintroduced the Price Gouging Prevention Act, which would protect consumers and prohibit corporate price gouging by authorizing the FTC and state attorneys general to enforce a federal ban against grossly excessive price increases.
• In October 2024, Senator Warren (D-Mass.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) slammed McDonald’s for squeezing customers with excessive price increases.
• In October 2024, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) wrote to the CEOs of Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and General Mills, pressing their executives on the companies’ pattern of profiteering off consumers, both through “shrinkflation” and dodging taxes on the profits they made from that price gouging.
• In August 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) sent aletter to Rodney McMullen, chairman and CEO of Kroger, raising concerns about Kroger’s use of Electronic Shelving Labels (ESLs) to potentially surge grocery prices and exploit consumers.
• In May 2024, while chairing a Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy hearing, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) called out giant corporations for hiking up food prices while raking in record profits, and urged action to promote competition and bring down costs.
• In May 2024, during a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) called out food industry price gouging and urged action to combat unfair pricing practices.
• In April 2024, Senator Warren (D-Mass.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.)wrote to DoorDash and UberEats, the two largest delivery platforms, calling out their use of hidden junk fees.
• In February 2024, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) joined Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.) inintroducing the Shrinkflation Prevention Act to crack down on corporations that deceive consumers by selling smaller sizes of their products without lowering prices.
  
  Source: Senator Elizabeth Warren