According to a class-action lawsuit filed in Fort Lauderdale federal court on May 8, Cynthia Kissner, of Broward County, and Leonard Werner, of Miami-Dade, say they have had to pay for cheese they don’t want on their Quarter Pounder sandwiches.
The suit asks for at least $5 million.
It comes down to this: On the menu, a hamburger at Micky D’s is cheaper than a cheeseburger.
According to the lawsuit, filed by Andrew Lavin of the Miami-based Lavin Law Group, McDonald’s used to sell four items in the Quarter Pounder family, with and without cheese, with prices adjusted accordingly — about .30 to .90 cents more for cheese than without.
This practice continued for years, the suit says, but now McDonald’s, “at some point,” ceased “separately displaying these products for purchase on menus, and currently lists the availability of Quarter Pounder with Cheese and Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese.”
As a result, the suit claims, “customers have been forced, and continue to be overcharged for these products, by being forced to pay for two slices of cheese, which they do not want, order, or receive, to be able to purchase their desired product.”
Having to pay for cheese they do not receive because they asked that it be held off of the burgers, well, they are not “lovin’ it,” to borrow from McDonald’s current slogan.
Lavin told the Miami Herald that customers who use McDonald’s mobile app to order, and those like Kissner and Werner who opt to place their orders at the restaurant, face two different scenarios.
“First of all, within the past couple months McDonald’s has updated its mobile app and if you want you can, in fact, purchase a Quarter Pounder using the mobile app,” Lavin said. “So McDonald’s is offering two specific products: one is a Quarter Pounder and one is a Quarter Pounder with Cheese. But if you go into the restaurant that option is not available to you.”
According to Lavin’s suit, Kissner and Werner “have suffered injury as a result of their purchases because they were overcharged, and were required to pay for cheese, which is not a component of either a Quarter Pounder or a Double Quarter Pounder, that they did not want and did not receive.”