The FTC Is Investigating Why the Ice Cream Machines at McDonald's Are Always Broken Apparently, even the Federal Trade Commission and McDonald's franchisees want to know why the ice cream makers never work.

By Matthew McCreary Sep 2, 2021

According to franchisees and a report by The Wall Street Journal, the old joke about the McDonald's ice cream machine never working is no laughing matter. Apparently, the franchise owners have complained that the machines are overly complicated and take up to four hours to clean. The report by WSJ's Heather Haddon states, "The machines require a nightly automated heat-cleaning cycle that can last up to four hours to destroy bacteria. The cleaning cycle can fail, making the machines unusable until a repair technician can get them going again, owners say."

McDonald's claims that it has a team devoted to the franchisees' frustrations regarding ice cream makers, but the devices remain difficult to fix. Now, the Biden administration and the Federal Trade Commission want to know if the machines' manufacturers are impeding franchise owners' abilities to work on or fix their own machines.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the inquiry is preliminary and does not indicate that the FTC has found any wrongdoing. So, like usual, we're left waiting on news about the McDonald's ice cream maker.

Matthew McCreary

Entrepreneur Staff

Associate Editor, Contributed Content

Matthew McCreary is the associate editor for contributed content at Entrepreneur.com.

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