McDonald’s App Charges Some Customers Twice for Mobile Orders, Class Action Claims

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McDonald’s faces a proposed class action over the allegedly “poor and/or negligent design” of its mobile app, which a Florida consumer claims is unable to properly handle transactions or apply discounts. 

More specifically, the 25-page lawsuit says that although the McDonald’s app will charge a customer for purchases made through the app, the charge is not always communicated to a physical McDonald’s restaurant before a customer goes to pick up their food. As a result of the apparent coding error in the McDonald’s app, some customers are forced to pay for their mobile order a second time, the case claims. 

“The physical McDonald’s stores claim to know nothing about the charges made by the App beyond whether payment was accepted or denied by the App.

This results in the customer being charged twice: once by the McDonald’s in-store point-of-sale system and again for the same order through the McDonald’s App.” 

Moreover, the lawsuit says the McDonald’s app purports to apply discounts related to certain deals, whereby the discount is to be applied after an order is executed and confirmed. Some customers have nevertheless ended up paying full price as the discount is “not always applied as promised and advertised,” the suit alleges. 

According to the case, the apparently negligent/poor design of the McDonald’s app and shoddy integration with physical stores is also to blame for the lack of refunds issued to customers for the alleged double payment issues. The complaint states that although the app glitches have been long known to McDonald’s, the fast good giant’s website tells consumers to appeal to their bank if they were double charged for a mobile order. 

“This in turn leaves the App’s customers with no simple solution regarding the funds that were improperly taken,” the suit says, noting that McDonald’s managers are unable to refund app-related charges. 

The lawsuit alleges McDonald’s is aware of its app “glitch” yet has failed to remedy the situation or offer refunds to affected customers. The suit contends that the McDonald’s app and the defendant’s physical stores are “notoriously disconnected.” 

The lawsuit looks to represent all persons in the United States who, as a result of the alleged McDonald’s app glitch, were improperly charged twice by the restaurant, received erroneous auto-ordering confirmations without having initiated orders in the app, or did not receive the discount promised by the “Deal” feature in the app within the applicable statute of limitations period. 

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